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.