Successor Command on Shanks's Pony.

Continuing with the theme of basing some proper command stands for the Hellenistic era, I give you the following:

Back to photographing under artificial light this evening as I got in rather late from work. Both of these miniatures are from Gripping Beasts Polemarch Successor range, the one eyed ancient on the left being a mail order freebie they offered early in the release schedule.
Sculptor is again Steve Saleh. Nice figures overall but sometimes lacking the sharp detail of the earlier Foundry 'World of the Greeks' ranges. This may be down to wear & tear of the moulds rather than any culpability on the part of said sculptor as the eBay purchase that the one eyed freebie came in were of high quality whereas some of my later direct purchases weren't quite so good.

Successor General.

Started to update the command bases for my Hellenistic collection last weekend, the first subject being this mounted geezer from Foundry's 'World of the Greeks range':

The 'allegorical' raven is a resin item from Tabletop World, which was part of a graveyard set bought from them & the pillar is turned out of balsa foam.
It was Foundry's Alexandrian Macedonians that got me started in 28mm Ancients & they still remain one of my favourite ranges for this era of warfare. Shame they didn't follow up on the projected range of Successor stuff that was advertised in their release schedules of the time, probably fell out with one their sculptors:)

Woe to Sparta. Post Action Report from Sellasia+++++

Well that was fun. This is the second time we have 'done' Sellasia & this time it went by the book with a win for Antigonus Doson, the Macedonian King & his allies from the Acheaen league.

The Antigonid left wing, Celts & Macedonian Cavalry.

The Antigonid right, Macedonian Phalanx & Illyrian Peltasts  face Spartan  Perioikoi  on the Euas hill.

The boy Philopoimen & a wedge of Acheaen Cavalry.

Things were a bit slow to get started at first as we both were drawing really poor  hands of cards to activate our commands.

Spartan cavalry charge the centre of the Macedonian line.

Two turns later the worm has turned, a unit of Spartan cavalry become the first casualties .

A slow start on the right wing also, the Macedonian troops are reluctant to advance.

Spartan Cavalry in trouble, outflanked & about to break.

Stalemate in the right centre of the battlefield.

Stalemate on the left of the battlefield, though not for long.

At this point we broke for a much deserved late lunch; gammon, egg, chips & peas washed down with a cup of well stewed char. As you will see this sterling repast provoked a flurry of action when we sat back down to continue our game:

Philopoimen & the Acheaen horse break into the rear of the Spartan left flank while the Thracian horse begin to roll up the line.

The Macedonian phalangites finally get moving & begin to assault the Euas  hill.

The thoroughly messed up far side of the battlefield, the result of some awful card play.

Woe to Sparta, the last remnants surrender on the Euas hill.

So at last a game that turned out more or less as it happened historically, though in the original it was a combination of phalanx & hillmen that won the fight on the Euas hill rather than Cavalry. I should also point out that we omitted the corresponding fight between Kleomenes the Spartan King & Antigonus Gonatus on the other side of the battlefield, one of these days when I can squeeze a 12' table in somewhere we'll do this. But this really is the crux of the fight allowing Philopoimen the first laurels of what turned out to be an illustrious career.

The rules worked well. We were both a little skeptical about the grid system at first but it does work when you get used to the limitations it places on the way troops can manoeuvre. The card draw activation/ combat resolution mechanic is a very effective system & does move the game along at a quick pace; from a visual point of view I think chits with roman numerals on would work better, but thats just me wanting to guild the lily, playing cards are easily available, cheaper & more importantly very easy to see on the tabletop. Overall though well done Simon, a well thought out system which is clearly laid out, easy to learn, quick to play & I do like how the author refers to himself in the third person, very Caesarian:)

Sellasia 222BC. An Actual Wargame!

After a break of nearly 18 months we're actually convening today to play a tabletop war-game. Here are a few snaps of everything set up ready to go:

We are using this rare opportunity to playtest Simon Miller's "To the Strongest" rules, hence the pins decorating the tabletop.

Post action report to follow later.

Thracian Cavalry Fin.

Finally got round to painting these 'Thracian' cavalry who were so rudely queue jumped by a bunch of rowdy Celts:

Just to re-cap, these started off as Gripping Beast Neo-Tarentines but with the addition of a mauve/pink cloak & a thureos have been re-purposed as much more useful Thracian cavalry for my 3rd/2nd century BC Seleucid Army.
That being said, their maiden outing will be to take part in a re-fight of Sellasia this Easter Sunday along side their dismounted brethren as part of Antigonus Gonatus's Macedonian Army.
We've done Sellasia at Handgrenadealien tower's before but its such an unusual battle I feel its worth a return visit.
More to follow tomorrow evening.

Freshly Based Celts.

Last nights homework was to finish modernizing the bases on my Renegade Celts, job well done I think.

Now if only Renegade would pull their fingers out & start producing miniatures again I could reinforce these bad boys.