Battleships of the Desert

Also known as Parthian cataphract camels, or 'camelphracts':

Figs by Navigator Miniatures. There is only one pose of the armoured camels, but I tried to vary the look by painting two types of metallic armour, and colouring the straps and reins.

The riders are the same ones used for the cavalry. I painted them in a variety of rich tones to reflect their status.

I bought twelve of them for use in our campaign armies.

I hope the view from the back shows the cloaks. I already have four Old Glory camelphracts; adding this lot will give me all I will need, I think.

Art de la Guerre

These rules are making some inroads, and Willy brought them over for a try out here at our place. He ran the Later Macedonians while I had their erstwhile Roman opponents. We did a few things wrong, as always happens with a new set of rules, but by and large I got a feel for them. Willy has played them more than I have, and he likes them. Anyway:

The Macedonian right, as seen from my perspective: some Thracians and a large phalanx.

Their centre: a couple of units of Foot Guards plus some Cretan Archers.

Cavalry on their right.

Cavalry on my left.

Legions in the centre.

Triarii brigaded together at my right.

A side table shot of the whole field, taken from off to my right. You can clearly see that the armies are offset.

Closing at my left...

...and in the centre.

My right. The Triarii are there to protect the flank of the central legionary mass.

The whole field at this point.

I try to get clever on my left to try to slow down the enemy here.

At my centre right, I use numerical advantage to try to swamp the foot guards.

Infantry slog.

Ultimately, Willy won, although only just, because he managed to swing some phalanx around before I could the same to him with legionaries. His foot guards were annihilated, though.

Overall, I quite liked it, but I can see where it is coming from. Willy used a common enough tournament game technique with his offset deployment, while I opted for a more traditional central set up because I didn't know what else to do. It played kind of like a compromise between Field of Glory and Armati. I have only played them once before, and it would be interesting to see how they play out again. I don't see me being wooed away from Tactica, though...

Hi Ken

Just saying hello to Ken, whose blog is here. He has a great looking X-Wing campaign on there just now - do go and have a wee look...