Wednesday 25 November 2009

Charonea 86BC Part I

Last night we staged  a refight of the battle of Charonea 86BC where the Roman General Sulla comprehensively defeated Mithridates' General, Archelaus.  We used the Command and Colors rules.  For deployment, I amended and scaled up some scenarios I found on the net.  The plains of Charonea are Hotz Hexmats.


Above is the initial (clickable) deployment.  The Pontics are on the left, deployed in some depth, with scythed chariots to the fore, a strong cavalry right wing and a detatched group of light infantry on the hill in the foreground.  The unit at the top of the hill in the forground is, in fact, a unit of Roman Charonean allies, who have sneaked around the back of the hill to ambush the Pontic light infantry on the lower slopes.


Above is a closeup of the Pontic right wing, which, at the start of the battle, is in the act of deploying to try to flank the Roman line.  The General leading the Thessalians at the rear is the Pontic CinC, Archelaus.


Above is the Pontic centre.  The pikes are representing the famous slave phalanx, and the second Pontic general Taxiles is leading some hoplites who are standing in as Bronze shields.  Some of the Thureophoroi are in fact similar-looking Carthaginian levy.  The scythed chariots are revving up for the charge!


Above is the "thin red line" of the Roman army, after their first turn of advance (using the first of two line command cards).  Ian and Barry, playing the Romans, launched a very aggressive attack that eventually led their leading cohort to within a very few inches of my Pontic baseline....  I'll post some shots of the battle, tomorrow, if I have time.

This was the first time I've had the bulk of my Hellenistic armies on the table; I was pleased with how they looked!  Next year I will definitely need more pikemen, though...

15 comments:

Consul said...

Amazing looking game and figures. I'm sure it will take me an age to amass that many painted figures.

It's taken me 2 weeks to paint 6 VBCW figures and they're mostly white still!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

:)

Nice touches with the movement indicators, I have seen something similar with the Western Desert tanks

Hank Edley said...

You can always use more Pikeman. :)

Or at least that is what I keep telling myself.

BigRedBat said...

VBCW, Consul; you have less focus than me, and that's saying something! I rather fancy VBCW for next year.

Hi Geordie, I need to do dust on all the units!

Hank, indeed! I've got a shedload of unpainted pikemen, but not the time to paint them.

Consul said...

Well, my Dad wanted to do a game at Christmas and as I have no chance of finishing a gameable ancients army by then I thought a smaller skirmish game would be much easier!

My game, however is set in 1912 and fought between the government forces and the workers.

Blog here: http://averybritishrevolution.blogspot.com/

I now only have 3 things to focus on though; romans, greeks and vbcw!

BigRedBat said...

I rather fancy modelling a unit of ILP including George Orwell. Years ago, when I was more political, an old Labour party supporter claimed that there were still buried troves of ILP rifles from the late 1930s out there, somewhere.

Giles said...

This is ace - great figures and a great report. Thanks, BRB!

Kind regards

Giles

Anonymous said...

NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO OWN UP TO BUYING THE SOURCE BOOK AND 30 BUF FIGURES FROM MUSKETEER MINITURES AT SALUTE . MIND YOU NOT A LICK OF PAINT HAS GRACED THE METAL YET.

NICK SPELLER

BigRedBat said...

Hi Giles!

Hey Nick; trouble with you is that you spend too much time painting other people's minis. :-)

If I buy some proletarians at the NEXT Salute, we could do Cable Street over again, but with machine guns!

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

That is one impressive board of nicely painted miniatures.I can hear the table groan.:-)

Cheers
Christopher

BigRedBat said...

Hi Christopher

When we moved into the house I had the floor reinforced with a steel beam, and picked a table with 4" square legs. Consequentally the only groaning was from my opponents; my dice rolling last night was superb.

Consul said...

Ah, the now legendary Nick Speller. Fancy painting some figures for me?! Lol.

Do you ol' fellas know what that means?

Consul.

BigRedBat said...

Consul, I was Roflmao-ing before you were born!

Secundus said...

You have very nice looking armies Simon it must be said.

BigRedBat said...

Thanks Secundus! You do pretty well, yourself!