Unique HOTT Army

Bernie Bajak, who games at the Liberty Hobby Center in Wheaton IL, has an interesting collection of figures. Included in his collection is an army for HOTT (Hordes of the Things)....a California Raisin army.

Bernie has them labelled on the bottom of the stand what troop type they are. The guys with surf boards are warbands, I believe. Very cool.

Gaugamela Light using ADLG

A week ago we played a 4 player 300 pt ADLG game in 15mm of Macedonians vs Later Achaemenid Persians, representing something like Gaugamela. Besides myself were Bob Pavlik, John Brust, and Bill Hupp. This was an introductory game of ADLG for John & Bill. We played at the Liberty Hobby Center in Wheaton IL, home of Thistle & Rose Miniatures.

The armies used were originally used for Tactica and WRG 7th edition armies I painted back in the early 90's, and later used for many games of DBM. They work just fine in ADLG.

Early stages of the battle. The Macedonians were intimidated by the large numbers of Persian cavalry on both flanks. 

Later in the battle, the Macedonian phalanx finally got going towards the Persian center with the mercenary Greek Hoplites, the Apple Bearers, and King Darius. Parmenio was fighting hard on the Macedonian left, while Alexander and the Hypaspists were routing the heavy Persian cavalry of Bessos on the Persian left. We had to call the game early, with the Persians having a Scythian cavalry unit about to sack the unprotected Macedonian camp. The Persians were 5 points away from breaking, the Macedonians were 7 pts away.

Large 300pt battles in 15mm look good in ADLG. John & Bill enjoyed their first ADLG game.

New Year ADLG Tournament

On Saturday January 2, I attended an ADLG (L' Art de la Guerre) tournament at the home of Phil Roberts in Palatine IL. We used 200 pt armies in 28mm and there were 3 rounds. Present including armies were the host Phil with Sassanid Persians, Mark Huml with Triumvirate Romans, Ed Harding with Patrician Romans, Allan Brown with Avars, and Dan (?? sorry, don't have his last name) who played using Phil's Palmyrans. I had an Ostrogoth army, & substituted 2 games for Myles Toomey, who had a Chinese (Han?) army.

Above is my Ostrogoth army. It had a Frankish foot warrior command fighting as impetuous Gothic  heavy swordsmen in the center, and two cavalry (heavy impetuous cavalry and Hun light cavalry) and light infantry commands on the wings. The camp is a fortified Gallic camp, scratch built by Bob Pavlik. My figures are Old Glory.

Above is my first opponent's army, Mark's Triumvirate Romans. Cool looking shields and swell paint jobs on Wargames Foundry figures.

Above shows the height of the battle. The Franks in the center were taking a lot of cohesion hits in an impetuous frontal attack vs legionaries, but the Goth cavalry was breaking through the Roman right flank (see above right in photo).

The Romans flank marched on the Goth right, which the Goths managed to counter and rout some of the Roman cavalry. The Goth breakthrough on the Roman right and subsequent sack of their fortified camp broke the Roman army, though the Goths suffered heavy casualties as well.

Above is the deployment for the second game against Phil's Sassanid Persians. The Persians right hugged rough terrain, with infantry and Elephants. In the center, the Persians had cataphracts and heavy cavalry. On the left they had a Allied command of Arab light cavalry supported by camelry. The Goths had a similar deployment to the first game.

Close-up of the Persians, which are beautiful Aventine figures.

The Allied Arab command.

Preliminary moves.

Things aren't going well for the Goths. The yellow 4 sided die are marking the numerous cohesion hits taken by the Goths. The impetuous Goth heavy cavalry charge of the Elephants on the Persian right was disastrous.

The Goths go down in defeat in a lop-sided loss.

Caesar's Romans waiting to engage the Avars. Avar/Roman photos by Mark Huml.

Allan's Avars advancing towards the Romans

Avar heavy cavalry crashing into the Roman legionaries.

Avar and Roman cavalry in combat.

More fighting.

Thanks to Phil for putting on and hosting a nice event.

Another ADLG Game AAR.

I recently traveled to Simon Babb's home to play my 4th game of ADLG. The armies we used this time were a few hundred years closer: Saitic Egyptians vs Triumvirate (Marian) Romans.

Simon needed some hoplites, as the Saitic Egyptians used hoplite mercenaries from Greece as their main infantry force. I brought my 25mm Ral Partha hoplites for Simon's use, which I painted about 34 years ago. The rest of Simon's Egyptians were from his New Kingdom Egyptian army, using 2 horse chariots to represent the 4 horse heavies that were common for this army. Simon's army had a main hoplite battle line, 4 heavy chariots, and a good mix of javelinmen, bowmen, medium spearmen, and light troops.

The Romans consisted of all elite legionary units. These are expensive at 13 points a piece in a 200 point army. I could have downgraded them to ordinary, which would have given me an additional 16 points to play with. My army had 2 corps of legionaries supported by 2-4 light troops, one corps also having 2 bolt shooters. The 3rd corp consisted of medium cavalry and a horse archer unit. The total number of units was 22, including the required fortified camp. My army's frontage was definitely smaller than Simon's.

Above is our initial deployment. The Romans (foreground) are deployed between two rough terrain pieces with their shorter frontage.

Above is the Egyptian main battle line with hoplites, and left flank forces. 

Egyptian right flank forces.

Above pictures is after turn 2. The Romans have decided that to win, the legionnaires must get into combat, so the right hand group is advancing towards the Egyptian left. The Egyptian right flank forces are maneuvering.

 The Romans are committing all the legions to a frontal attack. The Roman cavalry is heading left to take on the threat from the Egyptian right.

The right flank Roman Cretan Archers about to be overwhelmed by Egyptian medium infantry in the rough terrain. Numidian cavalry is skirmishing, lower right.

The Legions about to clash in the center. The Romans were hoping their right would hold, but it has disintegrated.

Fighting occurring in the center. On the Roman right, the Egyptians are turning to flank them.

 The Roman cavalry has gone into action on the left, while the Roman artillery is under attack (far left), one battery is destroyed. All the legions are engaged.

The game ends...too many Roman casualties, mostly lights, but the legions are starting to take heavy casualties. 

A close-up of the Hoplite/Legion combat. The Legions were taking the worst of it.

Another view of the heavy infantry clash.

The initial Roman set-up between terrain pieces wasn't helpful. It seems that the Romans need to get their legions into combat to have a chance to win. In this game, the Romans probably would have been better to set up at 3 UD of the center line and advance ASAP, even though their line wasn't as long as the Egyptians, and try to hold off on the flanks. The elite rating of the Legions didn't help much in this game due to my luck (rolled too many 1's & 2's), and attacking the main strength of the Egyptian line wasn't helpful either. The heavy spearmen hoplites with armor are tough. Also, I think that Simon played his army well, putting pressure on the lightly defended Roman flanks and keeping his right flank out of bolt shooter range for most of the game, so the artillery wasn't a factor. I will probably adjust the list when I use the Romans again.

DBA Big Battle in 3.0 Compared With 2.2

Robert Madrigal has an interesting 3 part article highlighting the differences in the newer Big Battle DBA 3.0 compared with version 2.2. He also highlights tactics that he has found to be successful. See links below:

Part 1: http://dbagora.blogspot.nl/2015/11/big-battle-dba-30-part-1-of-3.html

Part 2: http://dbagora.blogspot.nl/2015/11/big-battle-dba-30-part-2-of-3.html

Part 3: http://dbagora.blogspot.nl/2015/11/big-battle-dba-30-part-3-of-3.html