Lake Trasimene: The Largest Ambush in History

The Battle of Lake Trasimene was another crushing defeat for the Romans and was Hannibal's second major victory on the Italian peninsular. This Quick Strike, After Action Report, tells the whole story and reveals my recreation of the battle using 6mm Punic War miniatures and the To The Strongest! rules. 

TtS! is played on a Grid but for this game I marked out the grid in a fan, radiating out from the shoreline of the battlefield. This meant that I could move units as per the rules while accentuating the idea of the Romans being surrounded and attacked from all (landward) sides. As with previous games, the grid was marked with dots so it is barely perceptible - especially with the 'fog' overlaid. This is an idea I may use again in future games.

This battle report has been a long time coming, but now that it is done, I hope you enjoy it. Planning the game and work on the script began in the Summer of last year, with the game taking place in November! I continue to love the Quick Strike format, but editing a game to under ten minutes is a really tough challenge. It takes a lot longer to knock into shape than making a long-format battle report and kept letting myself get distracted!! 

Gallic Cavalry, Chariots & Heros

I have started preparing figures for this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge which starts in late December. In the process, I found some stuff from last year that apparently didn't get finished in time. These Gallic Chariots and Cavalry had started to be painted but were still a long way from completion.  I guess I must have decided they couldn't be completed by the end of the challenge and put them aside. I can't enter them for this year's competition (that, of course, would be cheating) so instead, I decided to pull my finger out and get them finished...a year after starting them! 

I also painted a few extra mounted Cauari (heroes) and a couple of Corionos and Uellauni (Senior and sub-Generals or "chiefs of battle.") on the larger bases. They aren't my best work but they are good enough to play with and I'm just glad to add them to my current collection of Gauls. I just need to add some labels to the rear of the bases but that will have to wait as my printer has just run out of ink! 

The Battle of Trebia - A Quick Strike AAR

A Quick Strike After Action Report of the Battle of Trebia using 6mm figures and Simon Millers To the Strongest ancient & medieval wargame rules. It is December 218BCE and Hannibal has invaded Northern Italy. He is outnumbered and needs a victory to steady the support of local tribes. But he has laid a trap for the Romans and is confident of victory.

This AAR has been in production for a long time, mainly because holidays and work commitments have eaten into my time a bit this summer. I have learned a whole new set of skills making the film, including finally getting to grips with some sound editing software to improve the audio. I'm still not 100% happy with the sound, but I had to draw a line under this project at some point or it would never have got finished! 

I shot a load of pictures while making the video and thought I would share a few here (it was a pity not to use them) as a teaser for the film. 

6mm Chariots are Fiddly!

I have finally started work on some models that I bought back at the start of the year. My 6mm Celts arrived in May and I did an unboxing video at the time but other projects meant I couldn't get started on these until now. 

Now that I have started preparing them - cleaning them up and glueing them to sticks ready for painting - I have come to appreciate just how fiddly 6mm Chariots are! The irony is that I ought to know all this having assembled and painted a dozen ancient Indian chariots for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge a few years ago. 

These Celtic chariots however are much smaller and my fingers are as big and clumsy as ever! 

As you can see I also have a considerable body of heavy and light Celtic cavalry to get on with and I'm hoping to get paint on metal in the next day or so. 

Unboxing - Baccus 6mm Celts

|I have just posted an unboxing video on my YouTube Channel Miniature Adventures. This is a long awaiting and much-anticipated delivery of 6mm Celts from Baccus. These will turn some Celtic allies for my Carthaginians into an army in their own right and expand my options for gaming during and around the time of the 2nd Punic War.

I'm a big fan of the Baccus ranges and anyone that follows my blog will know they are my go-to 6mm manufacturer. 

Battle Report - Battle of Aquilla

I've been getting in some more solo games during my week off work and the first of these was a Punic War game using the To the Strongest! ruleset by Simon Miller. It's been a while since I have had these out and I wanted to try out my new arrangement for the Polybian Quincunx formation. It meant cutting up and rearranging some of my collection, but the new arrangement looks awesome without taking up loads of space on the table. 

I made a 30 Minute Batrep video for this game, although I did go over my time limit by about five minutes. 

The newly arranged Quincunx formation for my Polybian Romans looks really nice. 

As in previous games I use 10 sided dice rather than cards for my unit activations because it takes up less space on my tiny table. 

The Romans are taking a lot of damage and struggled to make the most of their line exchange and special rally activations. 

The end of the game was hard-fought and both sides were very close to breaking. The battle could have gone either way. 

You'll have to watch the video to find out who won 😉 but it was very enjoyable and fun to play right to the end of the game. 

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge X - Body of Work

The Tenth Painting Challenge is over and I don't know about anyone else but I'm all brushed out for the time being. I need to clean up my Operations Room and find a home for the massive amount of stuff I painted! I've only had this hobby room for a few months and it's already FULL! I'm not complaining though, it has been a fantastic challenge and I've been more productive than at any time before. So time for my 'Body of Work' picture.

So what's in that mess-o-models? Quite a bit for me, I'm used to a smaller collection of work by the end of the Challenge. So here's a brief picture review of everything I managed to get done.

I think it must be obvious from these pictures that my work hasn't been dominated by 6mm this year. I had a quick look at my own personal 'Spreadsheet of doom' (yes I have my own!) and it turns out that 880 points from my 1400 total came from other scales. And worse still (according to RayR) nearly half my points were earned from work on a particular ice-bound Fantasy game. At this rate, I'm likely to have my membership of the Rejects revoked! Certainly, my reputation as 'the 6mm historical guy' is in doubt.

As already mentioned, I always keep a tally of my planned projects during the Challenge, tracking my progress as the week's tick past. I'm rather chuffed to say that I've outperformed myself at every stage of the competition. I've achieved a new 'personal best' and by every measure that I count, this has been my best Challenge ever. 

I'm already looking forward to the next Challenge and have started giving some thought as to what I want to paint. Alexanders army to face off against my Indians is a strong contender, but who knows. I look forward to seeing some of my fellow Challengers in the recently announced Quarantine Challenge and many more in December for Challenge XI.

Spanish Cavalry in the Army of Hannibal

Having completed my Classical Indian army I thought I'd revisit one of my existing 6mm collections. I've been giving some thought to enhancing the cavalry forces that formed part of Hannibal's army in the 2nd Punic War. It soon became clear that there was a gap in my army list that needed to be filled in the shape of some Spanish Cavalry. Various estimates suggest that after Hannibal descended the Alps into Italy he had about 6000 cavalry in his army, approximately 2000 of which were Spanish. These troops, along with about 8000 infantry, would have been recruited from areas directly under the control of the Barcids in their territories in the Iberian Peninsular. 

Despite being sometimes described as Heavy Cavalry they were typically fairly lightly armoured, similar to the infantry. The standard 'uniform' for the Spanish was a white tunic sometimes trimmed with red cloth. Most infantry wore sinew caps but these were gradually replaced by bronze Montefortino (conical helmets with cheek plates and neck guards) either taken from defeated Romans or forged by their own blacksmiths. All troops, foot and mounted, were armed with javelins or spears and the curved Falcata sword. Small round shields called caetra completed their equipment.

Polybius does describe some Spanish Cavalry being used as shock troops. These wore scale cuirasses and carried the larger oval Scutum shield and a single long thrusting spear. 

I have also read about extra men being carried on the horse, who would then dismount and fight on foot. I'm not sure if this sounds like a viable tactic as surely the newly deposited foot troops would be outnumbered by any infantry they engaged and would have run the risk of being trampled by their own cavalry. I'll have to read a bit more about this, although at the moment there are no rules that I am aware of in To the Strongest that would replicate this tactic.

Incidentally, my main reference source for this article is as always the excellent Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars by Duncan Head. I bought this some time ago and it cost a pretty penny but has been an invaluable reference source ever since. I constantly find myself diving into its pages for detailed information and is always a good place to start before widening the search for information.

Pauravan Indian Longbowmen

I'm fascinated by the story of Alexander the Great and have been since I was a kid. Over the years I have read plenty of books about this giant of history and have long been fascinated by the fact that these Greeks made it all the way to India in a time when the sub-continent was largely unknown outside of myth to most Europeans. I've been toying with the idea of building a Classical Indian Army for a long time but other projects have kept me busy. Now, at last, I'm ready to make it a reality. I'm not sure if I'll ever get to game with this army, but I'm looking forward to painting it none the less. The order of battle I have gone for broadly corresponds to that fielded by King Poros at the Battle of the Hydaspes and that means lots and lots of bowmen.

It's worth noting that most of the information I have gathered regarding this army has come from the WRG publication The Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars by Duncan Head. However, I have also tried to refer to original source materials such as the translated works of Arian wherever possible. The interweb has made this process much easier of course and I have been able to track down magazine articles and other sources as well. Few Indian sources survive and I have struggled to find the translated versions, although I will continue looking (and suggestions are welcome!). What we do know of Northern India in the 4th century BCE was that it was divided into many small tribal monarchies and that war between them was probably common.

Indian Infantry wore sandals and a simple high waisted kilt, usually made of white cotton. The longbow was probably as long as the later English Longbow but made of Bamboo; it's unclear how powerful they would have been in comparison. Arrian suggests they were very powerful but I have not been able to find more contemporary sources to corroborate this. The bow was strung with hemp or sinew and given the damp conditions prevalent in this region for much of the year its hard to say how effective these weapons would have been. The arrows were 4ft 6in long and made of cane or reed. The real strength of these units was probably not the weapon so much as the quantity of firepower that could be directed at an enemy that would normally be as lightly protected as those firing.

The core of the Army of King Poros at the Hydaspes was the Longbowmen and I have opted for eight units of these - a total of 288 infantry figures which should earn me 144 points in the Painting Challenge and get me firmly started towards my target figure. 

Battle of the Pellia Valley

One small corner of the Operations Room

Its been a while since my last solo game at home but at long last, my Operations Rooms is up and running! The room isn't completely finished but enough has been done that I could start using the space for some actual gaming rather than just DIY! I'm still waiting for my new storage units to be delivered (hopefully in the next week) and I need to put up some bookshelves today and start to bring my reference book collection out of storage. The room is coming together slowly, but this weekend I just needed to roll some dice and so I quickly threw together a small solo game using the To the Strongest! rules. 

The Setup

Hanibal has been defeating the Romans on Italian soil and with each victory, more Gaulish tribes have turned on their former masters. One tribe has decided the time is ripe to raid some of the lowland villas for plunder (and a little payback) but has quickly drawn the attention of a small Roman garrison in the area. This is a fictional encounter between two equal-sized armies in a small valley. The Romans had sent their light cavalry out to scout for the Gauls but the tribe used the hills to get into position opposite the smaller body of Roman infantry. They need to close the gap quickly and let their weight of numbers count against the disciplined Romans. 

Orders of Battle

Romans

General Trivinus (Mounted, Detached, Senior)

    4x Hastati/Principes (Legionaries, Special)

General Hastagus (Mounted, Detached)

    2x Allied Light Cavalry (Light Cavalry, Javelin)

Gauls

General Vestigius (Mounted, Detached, Senior, Brilliant)

    3x Gauls (Warriors, hero, deep)

    2x Veteran Gauls (Warriors, hero, deep, Veteran)

The Action

The Gauls have appeared on a ridge opposite the Roman camp. The Roman Light Cavalry are returning from a scouting mission and can be seen in the far corner of the table. 

A Mounted General leads the Light Cavalry and as soon at they see the Gauls they speed up aiming to harras the flank of the barbarians. 

The Gauls advance quickly, all except the last unit in the centre which rolled a one for activation. The General was in the same box and allowed a re-roll....another One! 

A couple of turns later the Gauls have advanced in better order and seeing the light cavalry on their flank oblique forwards allowing four units to face off against the Romans and the last group of warriors are tasked with seeing off or destroying the cavalry. 

Lots of Javelins are lobbed at the advancing Gauls with only one disorder marker resulting. Pretty ineffective considering. 

Melee commences and both sides take damage. The end Gaulish unit is in a bad way but similarly one of the Roman units is damaged and vulnerable. 

Meanwhile, the Gauls are able to see off one Light init and destroy another as it tries to flee. Both Light units have expended their javelins but could still be a problem is they arrive behind or on the flank of the larger warrior units. 

The Roman Hastati/Principi units fall back to attempt a Rally (having failed to do so as part of the line exchange). The Gauls meanwhile have lost a unit on the end of their line. The Romans could outflank the barbarians, if only they can make the most of the situation. 

Two Roman units are vulnerable now but the Gauls just don't seem able to exploit the situation. 

Disaster for the Roman commander. With units, in disorder, he wanted to fall back to Rally but instead, the first unit, outside command range of the general, rolls a ONE! The Roman turn is over having achieved nothing. 

The Gauls now destroy a Roman unit and threaten the other damaged unit. Fortunately, it passes several saving rolls and clings on. 

Now its the Gauls turn to roll a One on the first unit to activate, and again the General is too far away to help! 

The Romans take advantage of the breathing space and turn to attack the flank of the Gauls. After several rounds of combat, the Gaulish unit is destroyed and the advantage seems to have passed back to the Romans.   

Fortunately for the Gauls, they have mauled the Romans who have to retreat out of their Zone of Control to attempt to rally. Meanwhile, the Roman Light cavalry managed to evade the enemy and begins to swing wide behind the Barbarians. The warriors that had been harassing them now turn round and head back into the centre to support their comrades. 

The battle has swung a full ninety degrees. Now, at last, the Roman units have rallied and reentered the fray. The light cavalry, however, keeps rolling multiple ones for activation and fail to move on the exposed rear of the Barbarian line. 

The two weary forces clash again and both sides take damage, but the Gauls are better able to absorb this than the Romans and continue to press their attack. Meanwhile, another set of snake eyes mean the Roman light cavalry still haven't moved!!

A crucial moment. One of the Roman units is destroyed and are now just one point away from breaking entirely. 

The Romans attempt to rally but again fail and this time the Barbarians are able to overwhelm them, destroying another Roman unit. With the breaking point of the army reached the surviving Romans flee back to their camp. 

Analysis
A fun and relatively quick game to play. In fact, it took longer to set up than it did to play. There were several moments when I thought the Romans could win this but the dice gods were just not with them in the end. I can't recall a game where I rolled more ones for activation, often in multiples!

I notice that when I play alone like this I tend to ‘narrate’ the action out load to myself. Mostly this is talking through the next step of the rules as I play but sometimes I find myself cajoling troops that failed activation rolls or spurring others on when there is a crucial moment of the game. Most of the time I’m doing it without even noticing but it suddenly struck me during this game that this is the modern equivalent to making shooting noises as I played with my toy soldiers when I was a kid! (“Pew pew, pew pew!”). It made me laugh because I’m often accused of having never fully grown up... and at fifty I have no plans to do so in the near future!

So there you have it, my first game in the new Operations Room. I'll post more pictures of the room when I have finished putting up shelves and when my storage units arrive. Cross fingers another couple of weeks and everything will be done. Then I can start working on my preparations for this year's Painting Challenge.