A Few Huns More - courtesy of Oldbob!

Oldbob who hangs out on The Miniatures Page very generously sent me these guys, who were surplus to requirements - enough to make an eight-figure unit plus the obligatory looting party:

Figs by Foundry.

I gave them a smattering of shields, with a few left-over LBMS transfers of hide coverings (for Numidians, I think, but who cares...).

These were fun to paint, and they will be in the centre of the Hun contingent the next time we play Chalons.

That will be in a month, and in any case I thought I should paint them as quickly as possible after they arrived.

The looters were really different from the usual.

I like to think that the woman who has been grabbed has just killed the guy lying on the floor.

And that probably makes her better at killing Huns than her menfolk!

I also included a command figure.

These made a nice interlude from painting ancient Spanish.  But before I go back to those, I have a whole lot of dead Hoplites to finish for First Mantinea.  Cheers, all!

Chalons in Scotland

Report on our Society of Ancients (Scotland) battle at our traditional venue of Carronade in Falkirk.  Some photos by me, and some courtesy of Michael.

The first picture shows the relative army deployments.  On the left, we have the forces led by Attila.  Off in the distance is a small command of Huns tasked with masking or taking the only significant terrain feature, a steep hill in front of the Roman deployment area.  Moving more into the centre we have the Ostrogoths, and then waves of Huns.  In the immediate foreground at the left of the photo are the Heruls and Gepids.  On the right, the Roman forces are already beginning to move.  At the far end of their line is a detached command of Visigoths at the hill, then the main Visigoth contingent of Foederati.  In the centre of the army we have the Alans, with Aetius close by.  In the foreground at the right are the only Romans on the field.  The deployment is pretty much the same as in our previous playtest game at the club.

Most of the subsequent shots are taken from behind the Hun lines, because that's where I was stationed.  Above, the Ostrogothic cavalry shifts to the left of the army.

In the centre, the Huns advance to engage the Alans in an archery duel.  You can probably make out some acetates on the field - I decided to print command information on clear plastic instead of card or paper, to try to keep disruption of the photos to a minimum.

Picture number three is taken a little later, as the Ostrogoths sort themselves out.  Unlike the previous game, the Romans have advanced en masse, rather than rely on the time limit to win it for them.

In the centre, arrows darken the sky.

On the right, the forces close.

On the far left, the Huns plus Gothic foot archers open up a killing zone with lots of bows aiming up the hill.

In the centre, the Huns do exactly the same against the advancing Alans.  This is the second major point of difference from the first game - the Huns are going to use their archery superiority rather than physically attack the Alans.

A massive crunch on the right.  The legions in the centre of this area do not receive the initial charge very well.

Michael's close-up of the action here.  Graham did supply some Late Roman infantry, but they are based somewhat differently from our usual.  Hence the Hinchliffe Skutatoi standing in for their earlier brethren.

Michael also took this shot of the entire field at the same time.  You can clearly see the struggle in the foreground between the infantry masses, and the arcs of fire elsewhere in the battle.

After weakening the enemy on the left, the Hun forces make their attack.  Gordon's newly painted Gothic cavalry make their first ever charge in the centre of the photo above.

Another photo of the same moment, slightly more to the right.

The Alans press forward under a hail of arrows.  To the right of this photo you can just see Aetius charging in to try to shore up the infantry on the left of the Roman army.

The left of the Hun army is victorious.

On the right, gaps are starting to appear in the Roman lines.  One legion is destroyed, and other is barely hanging on, but the attrition on the Gepids is horrendous.

Suddenly, the Gepids rout in their entirety, leaving Adaric defiant with the mangled remnants of his personal guards.  With only two hits left, he leads a grand final attack on the reserves behind the Roman lines, determined to take as many of them with him as possible.  Such glorious futility...

As night falls, the Huns try desperately to finish off Sangiban's Alan nobles to win the battle, but it is not to be.  With only one hit left, he survives.

Both sides had only two army breakpoint units left, and if the Huns had managed to destroy Sangiban and his men they would have won the battle with the last throw of the dice.  But darkness saved the Romans.  This was a much closer game than the previous outing, with the historical outcome left intact (although not quite how it really happened).  We might get a third chance for the Huns to win it later this summer.

Battle of Chalons: Club 1st Tuesday Game

It was the turn of our group of ancients players to host the traditional multi-player game on the first meeting of the month, so we tried out the scenario for Chalons.  This is a scaled down version of my original; thanks are due to Simon MacDowall for graciously allowing me to adapt his scenario.  Map of the field:

The Hun army is in red at the top of the map.  It is composed of a confederation of Huns, Heruls, Gepids and Visigoths.  Commands are as follows:

Right Wing: a column of 18 Gepid and Herul heavy lancers; 18 Gepid light foot bowmen; a large warband of 48 Gepid foot warriors; the Comitatus of King Adaric, led by the man in person (24 elite Gepid warriors); and another large 48-figure Gepid warband.

Central Initial Wave: 5 units of 8 Huns

Central Reserve: 4 units of 8 Huns and a unit of 12 Hun nobles led personally by Attila.

Left Wing: the Ostrogoths of King Valamir.  Two large columns of 18 heavy lancers to either side of a large unit of 48 foot, with 18 light foot archers off to the side.  Valamir leads a reserve of 12 elite heavy lancers in person.

Hunnic detachment: two units of 8 Huns with a unit of 12 Hun nobles


The Romans, in blue:

Extreme Left Wing: 18 Elite Heavy Cavalry led by the Comes Equitum

Left Wing: 32 Elite Auxilia Palatina in column; two Legiones of 36 figures, including integral archers; and 32 Frankish loonies in column.  A second wave is comprised of 24 Limitanei Militia Grade troops and 24 German foot.  This large command, which is the most 'Roman' part of the army, is led by the Comes Peditum.

Lurking at the rear: Aetius with his Bukellarii, 12 Elite Heavy Cavalry.

Centre: two units of 12 Alans and a large unit of 18 Alan Nobles led by King Sangiban.

Right Wing: the Visigoths of King Theoderic.  Two large units of 36 Visigothic foot (including integral archers) are deployed to either side of the King's Comitatus, led by the old king himself (24 elite warband).  There is a small reserve of a dozen heavy horse to the rear.

Detached command: Theoderic's son Thorismund leads two units of 12 heavy cavalry, with an advanced screen of 12 skirmish archers sitting on the large steep hill to the front right of the army.

The battle starts late in the day, with only six full turns of daylight left.  Turn 7 will be dusk, and night falls at the end of Turn 8; these final moments will see progressive penalties applied to movement, shooting and melee.  Each army has nine breakpoints, with each unit and each general counting as one point.  The light cavalry and light infantry archers in the Hun army are worth half a point.  If neither army is victorious by nightfall, the Romans win by default.

The Romans can therefore afford to play a holding game, although they have placed a detached Visigothic command off towards the high hill, which is the only terrain feature present.  The Huns have likewise detached some troops in the same direction.

Some photos of the starting deployments:

First up is a shot of the entire field, taken from the Hun right flank.  Huns on the left of the photo.  My old Hinchliffe Skutatoi are standing proxy for the legions at the right of the shot.  We were able to fit in a dozen players, by giving the Gepid foot archers and cavalry column in the immediate left foreground to another commander.

Above is the Roman right wing from the viewpoint of a Hunnic helicopter pilot.  In the centre of the shot are the Visigoths, and a unit of Alan light cavalry can be seen to the right of the photo.  The reserve heavy cavalry is angled towards the supposedly open flank.  As umpire, I left the cavalry behind the hill off table.  Thomas is obviously deeply interested...

Photo number three shows the Alans in the centre of the Roman army, with Aetius lurking at the rear.  He is rather close to Sangiban - maybe he doesn't entirely trust him...

The final photo of the Roman deployment shows their left wing, the only Romans in the army.

Above, you can see the left of the Hun army: detached Hun cavalry to go wide if the need arises, and then the Ostrogoths as you look more into the centre of the army.

The centre: two massed waves of Hun horse archers, with Attila in attendance.  Unfortunately, the shot of the right wing Gepids and Heruls was rubbish, so I deleted that one.

Not wanting to waste any time, the entire Hun army advances en masse.  The first photo of the action (above) is taken from the Hun left flank, as they move their cavalry detachment wide around the hill.  They spread one unit of horse archers into skirmish formation and trade shots with the Visigothic foot archers on the hill, which is all they can see for the moment.  The Hun commander here has realised that something is behind the hill - he just doesn't know what it is...

The centre, however, is nowhere near as neat and tidy, or indeed sensible.  Despite their initial caution, the Romans have advanced the Franks at full speed to cramp the style of the central Hun horse archers.  This has broken up their advance, and mindful of the time constraints they have advanced the rest piecemeal.  The Alans start to pick them off one at a time by charging in - hey, who needs bows anyway?

Back around the hill, the Visigothic cavalry have advanced to engage the Hun general and his nobles, while the Visigothic skirmishers have disappeared under a hail of arrows, taking a unit of Huns with them.  At the top of the photo you can see the glorious charge of the Ostrogothic cavalry as they crash into the Visigothic foot - does this count as a civil war?

And here they are in all their glory.

Off into the distance, the centre continues to be a mess.  However, the Franks have managed to find themselves on the receiving end of a huge Gepid warband.  Both sides fail to withstand each other's ferocious charge, and when the dust clears, half of the effectives of the Franks lie dead in a single turn.  Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to use them to face off the Huns after all...

A quick sprint to the far end of the field finds the Gepid foot archers merrily shooting Roman Equites as the menacing column of Gepid and Herul cavalry closes in.  Those watching with OCD will no doubt note that my Skutatoi have mysteriously been replaced with proper Late Romans.

Back at the infamous hill, Thorismund leads his second unit of heavy cavalry towards the Huns, taking a few shooting hits as he goes.  It is Turn Five already!

In the centre, the carnage continues.  Valamir angles his remaining heavy horse to try to help Attila in the centre.  The Huns are dying in droves, and they aren't taking enough Alans with them.

In fact, the Huns' ranks are thinning rapidly, although they do finally manage to catch some Alans at a disadvantage.  In the far distance, the Franks have disintegrated, shaking the morale of a legion.  Even though the centre is not going Attila's way, a morale collapse on the Roman left could swing it back again in his favour.  At the very far end of the field, the Comes Equitum has managed to get himself killed by the charging enemy cavalry.  However, this does not seem to bother his troopers very much; despite the high shooting casualties and the death of their leader, they shrug it all off and keep on fighting.  This is effectively the crisis point of battle.  The Huns are losing badly in the centre, but the Roman left is in disarray.

I manage to head off to the other side of the table to take this photo of the Gepids pressing the Romans hard.  Just off to the left of this shot, Sangiban has managed to get himself killed, but the rest of the Alans don't seem to care too much.

Dusk is now falling, as shown by the large yellow die.  The Hun sub-general on the flank with the hill is about to have a bad time...

A photo of the rest of the field at this point as the Hun army collapses.  They do manage to take that pesky legion with them, but it held out just long enough.  Overall, Rome wins by 11 points to 5.

I thought it went well; we managed to keep a dozen players going for over two hours.  The Gepids were unlucky against the Equites, failing to make enough of an inroad after killing the general there, and the left flank of the Hun army eventually came unstuck.  The centre was not nice.  The Romans more or less just held their position, not even bothering to take the hill; they probably reckoned that it would slow down any enemy rash enough to come across it, so why bother committing oneself?

My own feeling is that this represents the historical battle quite well.  The Huns don't need to attack on their left, but can simply mask the hill and use their firepower to shoot anything that rears its head.  The Ostrogoths can push against the Visigoths, especially if they aren't forced to move further into the centre.  The Huns themselves can probably just shoot in waves, although the players on Tuesday quite rightly felt that this wouldn't give them the time they need to win the battle.  And of course the Gepids can always do what Gepids do best and charge everything in sight.  It will be interesting to see how it plays again at Carronade; here's hoping we get a Hunnic victory this time, because that would show that the scenario and the mix of troops are rightly balanced.

Cheers, all!

Commanders for Chalons

Huns, Goths and Late Romans, oh my!

First up, the Huns.

These figures are by Foundry.

I bought three packs of these guys, and got another with the Foundry deal on multi-packs.

I painted them to be as bright as possible.  After all, the generals are going to get the pick of the looted expensive silks.

Each pack had two horsetail standards included - one with a single tail, and one with three.

I made two of each.

They will serve for Attila and two sub-generals, plus another one for Sangiban the Alan.

I know he's meant to be Caucasian, but what the hell, I got the figures anyway, and nobody will notice on the tabletop.  There's going to be quite a bit of proxying going on...

This means I will have enough command bases for a full Hun army, if I ever get around to it.

I tried to mix up the horse and clothing colours to give them some variation.

I also changed around the position of the figures on the base.

I like the Foundry steppe ponies - they look about right in terms of size compared with the riders.

The long grass is by Faller, with some cheap brown plastic wood for the earth and lighter flocking.

I like this look, which I originally tried out on my GEMS for Hastings (Generic Early Medieval Scum).

These should really stand out on the tabletop, especially when compared with my mix of much duller older figures for the army in general.

I'll probably use the triple-tail standards for the two main commanders.

Next up are the Goths.

These are by Musketeer Miniatures.  Flags and shield designs by Little Big Men Studios.

Again, I've mixed up the tunic colours to give some variation, while still trying to make them stand out.

I gave each foot base two standards.

There are Goths on each side - Ostrogoths fighting for Attila, and Visigoths fighting for Rome.

I haven't yet decided which to use for which side - it probably doesn't matter much.

The flags are actually for Early Saxons, but Steve at LBMS notes that they could be used for Goths as well.

There are also two cavalry bases, one for each side.

Some have horse armour, and so are obviously of the highest status.

They've probably been busy looting!

I left the horn blower looking quite plain by comparison.

The other base has two figures, for some variation.

I'll probably use this one for the command detached by Aetius to seize the heights to the front right of the Roman army.

The Comes Peditum of the Roman army.  He might have been Roman, but hardly anybody else was.

The Comes Equitum.  The Romans are again by Musketeer, with the ubiquitous LBMS transfers.

Finally, we have Aetius hinself.

The Roman standards are something of an experiment.

Instead of putting the flag transfers on paper, I used matt white Duchess satin that I bought from an old Glasgow institution, Mandors the fabric shop, aka known as the wargamer's shop of choice for off-cuts of useful stuff.  I wanted something that would look less flat than paper.  The material sliced well with a craft knife.  I'll try it again with two-sided flags at one point, to see how they work out, but it will be a while before I get the chance to do that.

This is pretty much my first proper foray into this period; now, it only remains to see how they fight...