Hastings for the Lads (plus one lass)

At the weekend I ran a reprise of the Hastings scenario for Thomas and Robert.  They ran the Normans with some help from Cate, while I as the English tried to withstand their onslaught.

The centre of the defending army, as seen from the Norman perspective. Harold and his Huscarls are right in the middle, flags waving.  Flocks of birds can be seen above them in the sky...

The entire Anglo-Saxon army, from a bird's viewpoint.

And how they look from the side, nice and safe on their ridge.  I know it should be higher, but the little metal sods won't stand up properly!

The right of the Norman army, Odo commanding.

Their centre: some mercenary foot stiffened with marines and sailors. Duke William is a the centre rear with his bodyguard.

Mercenaries and Bretons on the Norman left.

The Normans advance across the stream and begin to send units wide.  If any of the defenders come off that hill, they will be caught in a pincer movement and destroyed.

Their movement continues.  To make things fair, I used programmed rules for the English army, since I know the rules a lot better than the opposition.  However, they have to break my army in 12 turns to win.

As the Normans manoeuvre over several turns, my rightmost unit takes a hammering from accurate archery.

So does one of my centre left units, one of those that is fronted with a rank of Huscarls.  Or, rather, was, since they've all gone down to those pesky archers. However, the Normans are going to have to make an assault at one point, because we are now half way through the day.

An atmospheric shot of the Normans lurking to the right of the English army, taken at Robert's request.  Anyone who comes off that hill is going to be in serious trouble.

It is about this time that Cate takes over for a while from Thomas, and promptly shoots Harold and also one of his brothers. Elements of the Anglo-Saxons lose their cool as a result and charge downhill, only for the Normans to retire after an initial fight, drawing then onward.

A lone unit of Saxon types in the centre of the field does the same, only to be faced by two large column of enemy infantry.

A gratuitous shot of Harold on the ground - I had some of an Old Glory command set for this little vignette.  Poignant.

At this point, my army disintegrated, and the Normans took the hill, cutting through gaps in the defending line.  About a third of the army escaped, led by Harold's surviving brother.  Fortunately for the Normans, my command prohibitions meant that I had to sit on the hill and watch as they got themselves into position.  If I had free command, I would have come down en masse and hit them while they were still marching about the place.

This was the first game in my restored games room.  The deal is that I have it for one half of the year, while the Triffids get it for the growing season.  We had some really good tomatoes this year!

On the Painting Tray: October 2014

Yet another legion for Caesar's boys (and Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Lucullus, Sertorius, plus anyone else who used them).  Again almost entirely by Companion Miniatures, these guys will be the last of my legions wearing cloaks.  However, to make them different from the other two legions already painted, this time I will adapt a really nice LBMS transfer intended for Warlord Games figs (I think); it has two crouching lions in white to either side of the shield's centre on a black background.  I just liked the look of them...

Legio Septembris

Also known as the legion I've finished just before the end of September:

Rank and file by Companion Miniatures, with some officers thrown in randomly from other manufacturers. Shield designs by Little Big Men for 1st Corps, cut and shaped to fit a bit.

Now that summer is mostly over, it's been time to get back to painting. The intention is to paint a legion a month for the next three months.  That should give me enough Marian types for one army in our campaign.

These are the guys who will face the Germans and Mithridates. I'll need to paint up more legions, probably with white shields, to be the opposition in the Social War and the various subsequent civil wars.

The fourth photo shows them on parade with the previous legion I finished. I'm trying to mix and match the legates from every make I can find, to give a bit of variation.

A quick overhead shot.

Here they are from the back, the general's viewpoint. I hope you can make out the different shades on the cloaks of the legionaries - I wanted one to be a darker colour than the other so that gamers can tell the difference between the two.

Here's a closer view, with the guys just finished in the darker cloaks to the right as you look at it.

The total for 2014 now stands at 456 foot, 107 mounted and seven elephants completed. It turns out that I won't be needing to paint some Indian infantry for Hydaspes after all - Simon has already bought enough to finish the Indian army, and has painted half of them already. I will, though, take a break at one point to finish my North African army - Jugurtha will be appearing in the campaign soon-ish...