Warhammer Ancient Battles. Korupedion 281BC.

On the cusp of 2016 Mr. Ireland & I finally got to put on our first war-game of 2015 & it was a good one, well not for me I lost!

Left wing cavalry combat.

The respective phalanxes advance in line oblique.

Hitting a Walnut with a sledge hammer.

Paul ( Lysimachus) won the initiative & elected for a general advance on his left & in the centre whilst refusing his right flank, I ( Seleucus) elected to advance everywhere resulting in combats on both wings. The fight between the two units of Companions & the Thracians on my right wing ended with the Thracians routing & being destroyed in the subsequent pursuit whilst on the other wing my Tarentines & Paul's Getae fought to a stalemate.

Some desultory archery accompanies the slow plod of the phalanxes

Companions begin to turn a flank

The impasse between the Tarentines & Getae continues for a while on the left, but the balance swings in my favour when the two ridden Elephants hit the flank of the Getae, who are destroyed in the pursuit, another melee develops alongside between Paul's peltasts & my levy infantry. In the centre two of my phalanxes & the towered elephant begin to square off with Paul's hoplites in the broken ground beyond the trees. The remaining heavy infantry continue to eyeball each other in the centre

From the Lysimachid baseline, Hoplites defend the village.

Heavy infantry clash across a stream. Seleucid dross & Lysimachid Peltasts  contest the rough ground beyond.

At this stage things are going pretty much my way with Paul's right flank & right centre broken wide open. At this stage we pause for a hearty lunch of mashed potato, baked beans & decent pork sausages. It would seem my troops also paused for lunch and probably a gallon or two of wine each because the turn after lunch things go tits up fairly rapidly.

Paul's right is in disarray, victory seems to be in my grasp.

The phalanxes finally clash.

The phalanxes in the centre finally get their fingers out & pile into combat, unfortunately for me so does Paul's solitary elephant: result, two of my phalanxes break & my one spare unit of companions also fails a terror test & flees, along with Seleucus. Game over.
Thats it really, a terrible result for me but good fun. For once the elephants on both sides proved decisive, not a solitary stampede despite some missile hits damage early in the game. Both our heavy cavalry units were signally useless, fighting out a stalemated combat for much of the game. Star units were Paul's elephant, his archers & my Tarentine cavalry. Abject failures were three of my phalanxes, but this is not un-expected, I rarely have much luck with them for some reason.

The Annual Wargame for 2015. Korupedion.

Even by my low standards its been a fairly poor year on the gaming front, in fact it's over 18 months since lead hit the table in the HGA household. Barring last minute mishaps this will be remedied tomorrow when Mr. Ireland & I convene to re-fight the Battle of Korupedion 281BC.
One of the lesser known battles between the Diadochi, this particular action was fought between the by now octogenarian Seleucus & the septuagenarian Lysimachos. Other than that the definite facts about the battle are that it was fought near Korupedion in Lydia & that subsequently after crossing from Asia Minor to Greece Seleucus was assassinated, possibly by Ptolemy Keraunos.
Obviously this allows for a fair degree of latitude in planning a war-game but I have tried to stay within the bounds of reason when writing the OOB's. They are as follows:

Lysimachos.                              Seleucus.

Cavalry.                
1x10 Companions                     2x10 Companions
1x9   Getic Nobles                     1x12 Tarentines
1x9   Getic Horse Archers

Phalanx
3x28 Phalangites                       3x28 Phalangites
2x30 Levy Hoplites                   2x24 Phalangites

Light Infantry
1x Thracian Warband              1x Maiotian Warband
2x16 Peltasts                           2x8 Persian Archers
1x8 Cretan Archers                 1x8 Persian Hillmen

Special

1x Towered Elephant              1x Towered Elephant
                                                2x Ridden Elephants
                                                 1x Scythed Chariot

The units were chosen to try & reflect the recruiting grounds available to the two monarchs. Lysimachos held territory in Thrace, hence the Thracians & Getae ( a more equestrian orientated tribe of Thracians), hoplites could be recruited from the cities of Greece & also along the Aegean littoral of Thrace though apparently they were not enthusiastic allies. The Elephant would be an older beast acquired when Lysimachos took over Kassander's army, whether it should be towered or not is a matter of conjecture.
Seleucus had most of Asia Minor & a large proportion of Asia to recruit from hence the presence of generic 'Persian' archers & javelineers. The Maiotian tribesmen were originally from the Black Sea region but are standing in here for an exotic blend of conscripted infantry. The second unit of Companions are most likely Iranians rather than Macedonians. The ridden elephants represent those available from the 500 acquired by Seleucus prior to 301BC whilst their towered brother is again based on conjecture.
The set-up is shown below:

An overall view. Seleucus to the left. Lysimachus on the right.

The Seleucid Array.

View from the rear of the Lysimachid phalanx.

Lysimachid right wing. Peltasts & Getae.

Lysimachid centre.

Lysimachid right.

Thracian's very at home on a hill.

Seleucid left. Maotians, Tarentines & ridden elephants.

A gratuitous shot of the Getae.

That's all for now, after action report to follow tomorrow.

28mm Seven Years War Project. A quick Re-cap.

This project has been a real slow burner for me. I started around 1995 with 1/72nd Revell plastics & then upgraded to 28mm when Crusader Miniatures started producing Austrian figures for this era, can't remember when this event occurred but it was quite some time ago, but regardless it has taken me quite some time to get the collection to the stage illustrated below.

L to R. Friekorps Le Noble, IR18, IR41, Frei Husaren von Kalben, Fat General & Freikorps Jager.

Friekorp von Kleist, Horse Grenadiers, Uhlans & Hussars.

Freikorps von Kleist, Croats, Band & Jagers

Austrian Grenz

Austrian Dragoons, Savoyen & Sachsen-Gotha.

Austrian cuirassiers No.14 & Palatinal Hussars.

IR No 20 Botha d'Adorno, Grenadiers Haller & Gyulai.

Rot- Wurttemburg, No.37 Josef Esterhazy, No.4 Deutschmeister & No.2 Erzherzog in front. 

Still a long way to go with this endeavour. Going to need at least 3 more Prussian infantry units, a couple of cavalry units to back up 'Green' Kleist's horsemen & not forgetting an artillery battery. The Austrians will also require artillery & a couple more cavalry units plus a few more infantry to finish off No.2 Erherzog ( which I have undercoated ready to go). Should only take me another 20 years to get them to the war-games table I reckon.

Freikorps Le Noble.

The theme for December seems to be clearing up the lead mountain so continuing in this vein I have begun finishing off the small number Seven Years War figures that have lain neglected since 2013.
Amongst these were a few Foundry miniatures Freikorps Le Noble with their unusual casquet headgear:

Not the most animated figures certainly, but nice crisp detail & easy to paint. Mainly shaded with washes which I find work well on greens with a couple of highlight shades on the straps & helmet ciphers.

Sons of Somerled.

Re-visiting another older project this week, finally decided on the heraldry for my Lion Rampant Isleman army:

Of the miniatures painted this year these were the ones I enjoyed most so I'm going to bite the bullet and order a few more packs form Claymore Castings, not too many shields though, painting heraldry makes my eyes hurt.

ECW Brigade of Horse.

Following on from last weeks re-basing efforts I have continued in the same vein with a couple of regiments of horse:

These represent the regiments of Sir Wm. Vaughan & Col. John Marrow/ Col. Robert Werden, two of the royalist horse regiments active in Cheshire & the Welsh Marches from 1643 to 1646.
Although attached to Royalist field armies for the larger campaigns a lot of their time was spend garrisoning local strongpoints, beating up enemy quarters & general skirmishing. One would suspect that they were also a plague on the local population as they were expected to live off the land, indeed there are a couple of extant reports of Vaughan's men making off with bed linen & other goods without regard for the householder's Royalist sympathies.

The Shrewsbury Foote.

After a year spent painting Romans & their Italian cohorts I'm having a well deserved break & heading forward in time 1800 years to Stuart era England & scene of my first ever foray into 25/28mm wargaming some 30 years ago.
In anticipation of some actual gaming I've started to update the bases of my English Civil War collection, starting with the titular 'Shrewsbury Foote'

Before getting to the photos it might be useful to explain the origins of this unit:

As part of the Royalist recruiting drive in 1643 various units of the English army in Ireland were shipped back to the mainland disembarking at various ports along the Welsh coast & in the West country in late 1643 & early 1644, the units that concern us are as follows:

Col. Fulk Hunckes
Col. Wm. Gibson    all arriving 1643
Col. Henry Warren

Col. Robert Broughton
Col. Henry Tillier         arriving early 1644

The first group of regiments served at the Siege & Battle of Nantwich as part of Lord Byrons army & thereafter with Broughtons & Tilliers in Prince Rupert's 1644 Northern campaign, culminating in the Royalist defeat at Marston Moor. It was after this disaster that the remnants of these units were brigaded together as The Shrewsbury Foote.
They continued to serve the Royalist cause under a Colonel Smith ( Broughton & Tillier both being captured at Marston Moor) and are noted as being 500 strong at the battle of Naseby in 1645. After that setback the remnants of the unit were dispersed into various garrisons in Shropshire but they did have a last hurrah at the battle of Stow on the Wold in 1646. Not the most successful of military experiences, but one typical of many Royalist regiments from 1643 onwards.

As far as dress & equipment goes I've managed over the years to find a few reliable details:

Col.Tilliers. Green coats ( noted in aletter from Dallison to Prince Rupert), no info on colours but there is a letter somewhere that mentions them flying strips of green taffeta at one muster in 1645.

Col. Broughtons. Often attributed as wearing green coats, based on a correspondence noting a green coated brigade at the last stand following Marston Moor, Tilliers are known to have been present & the assumption is that Broughton's were the other regiment brigaded with them.
Colours may have been blue ( device unknown) but it escapes me where I read this snippet of info.

Col. Warrens. Red coats & noted as carrying red & white colours in Ireland, no info on what form these took however ( gyronny, red with white devices, stripy?) & whether the practice was continued in England.
I've not found any information on coats & colours for Gibson's & Hunckes's but it is noted that the first group of regiments were re-equiped with civilian clothes on their arrival in Wales in 1643 so for the campaign in the north west they would have presented a motley spectacle.

History lesson over, onto the pictures:

This more uniformly equipped unit of musketeers are Tyldesley's Regt, late of the Oxford army.

As noted above Warren's Regt. may have used red colours, the use of white balls is pure artistic licence.

Historical note: the pikeman in the fetching red britches is supposed to be me, a hangover from my days in the Sealed Knot.

The miniatures are all Redoubt Enterprises & Renegade. More to follow soon.

Yet More Romans.

Without further ado, the pictures:

I have around 30 more figures to assemble & paint plus a small unit of roman cavalry to source and that will be it for Romans for the time being. The next step is to actually use them in a game, more on this nearer the time.
Not sure what the next project will be yet. I would like to enlarge my Lion Rampant retinue with a few more men at arms & archers from Claymore Castings, but I do have a couple of packs of Orinoco Miniatures Gran Colombians to finish off first & painting webbing straps will be a nice change of pace after painting 100 plus shield edgings.

A Mixed Bag.

After last weeks sterling progress painting the rank & file this week has mainly been concerned with the  better class of Roman.

Centurion.

Signifer & Cornicen for a unit of Triarii.

A&A Miniatures Samnite. Officer for the allied legion.

The obligatory pachyderm, with hastati & triarii crew members.

All in all things progressing well with this project. There is another unit of heavy infantry in paint as we speak & another still in the raw. When these are done with their attendant velites I will have a viable force with which to fight a war-game ( hooray!). Just the small matter of purchasing some cavalry, though as a stop gap I could use the ubiquitous Tarentines from my Successor collection.

Romans! Dozens of 'em.

The headcount of hastati/princeps is now up to sixty:

Add to this the thirty odd velites also finished & there is the makings of a viable army to game with. Obviously I still need to organise some cavalry to augment this vast host but in the meantime this pachyderm will have to stand in:

I was going to replace the hoplon on the side of the tower with a scutum, but figured that the latter might be a bit of a handful in such close confines.
Once this little side project is completed its back to the legions again, this time with fetching powder blue scuta.