Saturday 4 July 2015

Sertorius against Pompey, Part One

And they're off! I end up playing the Spanish contingent on the far right flank of the army of Sertorius, so the photos are taken from behind his army. Above you can see the far left (loony) contingent of Celtiberians and Caetrati moving forward to attack Pompey's Gallic horse and foot. Simon is running the Sertorian left, Willie the Pompeian right.
Next are Celtiberians trampling some trees in their haste to get at the enemy, which unfortunately includes some legionaries.
Moving into the centre, the Romans of both sides can be seen advancing. Billy plays Pompey, while Larry is Sertorius.
The next photo along was too blurry, but here is my command at the Spanish far right, facing off against what seems like innumerable Numidians, run by Colin.
A long table shot of the situation after Turn One. Sertorians to the left as you look at it.
A low level shot of the action on my wing.
How it all looks from the humble perspective of the PBI.
The masses advance further at Simon's end of the field.
More of the same.
The legions are about to collide.
I am also in charge of the massed Spanish foot, facing a mixture of legionaries and Italian auxiliaries. I deliberately move my rightmost Spanish infantry towards my right to support my outnumbered Spanish cavalry. This is a calculated risk, since it leaves the next unit in facing both of the Italian foot units.
 I am being cagey at my extreme right - I need to try to pick off the Numidians a unit at a time to try to compensate for their numbers.
The whole table from off to my flank at this time. The nice even lines of Romans can be seen in the middle of the field, while my flank is more flowing. Only the gods know what is going at the far end.
I move over there to take a photo, and while the Caetrati seem to be doing well at the extreme left, the Celtiberians here are not enjoying an encounter with the legions.
So this is what a Roman civil war looks like.
Some of my Spanish foot end up fighting legionaries too.
My other units move out as per orders.
And my Spanish heavy cavalry prepare to charge.

That's all for now, since at this point my camera batteries gave out and the two spare sets I had with me turned out to be duds. Fortunately, Colin was able to come to the rescue, and I'll pick up the narrative from here once he emails his photos to me...

8 comments:

  1. Impressive pictures of a great and mlassive looking game!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glorious armies and table, Paul!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cracking game Paul - really impressive!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beyond impressive set up and scenario.
    What are the rules being used for such a spectacular battle?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Chris, we use a version of Tactica. It handles really large games well. This one took three and a half hours to play to conclusion.

      Delete
  5. Amazing looking game! Impressive amount of wonderful figs.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Stupendous, that's how to do it!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for looking, everyone. I'm hoping to post the rest of the photos soon.

    ReplyDelete