Julian Vs Shapur II A Hail Caesar AAR

A Saturday game with Chris Flowers and the usual suspects at the barn in Nidderdale saw us re-fighting one of the battles between Emperor Julians late Romans and Shapur II's Persians.

Full disclosure, I forgot my camera and got caught up in the game so forgot to get a lot of pictures and also to see what else was going on around the table quite often. Fortunately Si got some good pictures I pinched to supplement my mobiles take on proceedings.

We played on a 13 foot table which was pretty bare other than the odd piece of scrubby rough ground or "Skirmisher hole" as Chris referred to them, and the oasis in the middle of the table

This represented the campaign that saw Julian push into the Persian desert with Shapur falling back after numerous defeats and fighting the Romans at an advantage wherever they could, eventually however Julians luck ran out and he was killed.

Our battle has the Persians falling on a small Roman infantry force guarding an oasis that is quickly reinforced, a lot depends on initial deployment for the Persians as they have a long way to go to get at the Romans and a narrow frontage so only those troops getting there first will see much in the ways of action. Mmm perhaps I should have thoughts about that in my initial plan!

The forces available were pretty huge so I wont go through the detail here, broadly though the Persians had 10 divisions. Two of purely Cataphracts, two of nomad cavalry which we would send in a wide encircling move to get behind the Romans, one of light cavalry, one of rather erratic Elephants and 4 of infantry and very mixed quality.

Our lead elements on either flank would be quality heavy foot and Cataphracts with the poorer levy bringing up the rear where they could do least damage. As the Elephants blundered on any doubles we left a very large gap around these in the middle.

The Roman force was slightly smaller with foot holding the Oasis and Cavalry coming to the rescue along with a division of Chris's newly painted and very lovely armoured camel troops (Jerry Miller of Parchment N Lead https://www.parchmentnlead.com/ ), interesting to see how these guys would fair in their first outing.

The Persians deployed with their heavy infantry Division on the left and 4 feet up the table as we wanted them to hit the Romans first, is support of these would be my Cataphract Division followed by the Levy infantry bringing up the rear, int he centre with a wide gap all around them would be the Elephants.

The right wing was led by Richards Cataphract division, supported by Steves light cavalry division and another foot division this time mixed medium and levy foot. Richard and Marks nomad cavalry divisions both moved off table to outflank the Romans and come on in their rear.

Move one saw most of our forces mill around and not do very much at all, apart form the Elephants which for there first two moves got three actions of movement and so very quickly belted 3 feet up the middle of the table. The gap we left around them was due to their increased chance of blundering and the potentially devastating impact if they blundered into our own forces.

The Romans deployed their foot, mainly veteran legionaries, in a sharp V formation with the end of the Oasis at its apex. Move one and their horse were moving on. Predictably the camel troops deployed to the left of the Oasis failed to move at all for their first three turns!

Three turns later and Marks heavy foot on the left with Richards Cataphracts on the right are starting to get into action. Daves Roman archers and the Persian light cavalry are skirmishing in the middle of the table at the apex of the Roman formation. Steve is having the best of the skirmishing Whit his light cavalry and Mark is making progress with the heavy infantry but Richards dice are not on form today and the Cataphracts are finding it all very heavy going.

Another turn and the Camels finally make a move to their front to a cheer from all players, at the same time the nomad cavalry erupt in the rear of the Roman lines, Jerry, Si and Andy have already turned a fair proportion of their cavalry to counter this threat and some long range skirmishing kicks in.

Si decides to turn is camels to face the threat to his rear but they are back to refusing to move much to everyones amusement (except perhaps Si)

Our main battle lines have now closed and my Cataphracts are finally in action hitting the Roman foot at the centre left, Mark and I are steadily pushing the Romans back and having the best of the fighting. The nomads are keeping the Roman cavalry busy and whilst Richards dice are not getting any better he is hanging on and inflicting plenty of damage on Andys heavy Roman cavalry.

As CinC I remind Steve and Rich that they still have a whole division of foot of table but with two divisions of foot unable to close with the Romans due to the available space being full of fighting troops it hardly seems worth getting them off the shelves at this stage.

Mark and I are continuing to push back the Romans and whilst the Roman horse is much better than our nomads and charges are keeping our chaps at long range we have effectively tied up over half of the Roman cavalry and are steadily wearing them down.

At this point Steve points to the Elephants, the gap is no longer massive between them and the supporting units "Perhaps we should just leave those there?" he says "No get them forward!" sure enough they blunder, fortunately for me they dont quite reach the infantry on their right, disaster narrowly averted, sorry Steve.

At this point we need to call halt to proceedings, I feel like the Persians are having the best of things marginally and we still have a lot of troops in reserve to throw in as we need to but there is probably half a day or more of fighting still to do if we are to play to a conclusion.

Here are a few more of Si's great pictures.

Agreeing to disagree on who was winning we pack up Chris's beautiful collection of figures and go home having had a fun day of wargaming.

Another Sikh Wars Workbench

I am enjoying painting the Colonial stuff at the moment so the Sikh Wars project is getting some attention. Partly this is due to actually getting some on table for the first time I guess.

The Comapnt troops still lag far behind but every figure is a step further on the road and a small chunk out of the lead mountain.

The basing department was home for the weekend and I had got a couple of figures done for a Shapr Practice game at Steves.

A dozen matchlock men form part of my muslim irregular force. With 5 bases of 4 being a full battalion or for Black Powder a standard sized unit, a 12 man unit cab be considered a small unit. The below are mainly Wargames foundry Afghans with 3 foundry Sikhs mixed in.

The Afgan leader was completed just in time to lead a charge in the recent game and was base dby me, you cant really see ahy difference now between the two sets of basing.

Here they are together forming a skirmish line to pepper the Company troops.

Next we have Bengal Sepoy battalion, Wargames foundry with a Studio miniatures commander and Iron Duke standard bearers and light infantry native officer. The Iron Duke figures are particularly nice.

A mounted colonel by me agin this is a Foundry figure, I like how the horse came out.

The casuaty marker is a Perry plastic British peninsular musketeer, I think he looks just fine as a Sepoy.

Altoget here with the Colonel waving his men onwards,  imagine his hat will be a little worse for wear.

These four horsemen are a mix, the outer two being Foundry Afghans on Sikh Wars horses, the inner two Perry miniatures Sikh Wars figures. I think they fit together perfectly well. I will add these to four others I have completed so two more gives me another unit.

These guys are the first 6 of a 10 man unit of Bengal Native Light Cavalry, really pleased with how the colour scheme has come out here. The figures are Iron Duke with the Officer being a Foundry figure on a Studio horse.

The crew for a light battery of Sikh horse artillery are next,I just need to finish 2 guns and this unit is complete. Three gun batteries representing the Sikh superiority in guns for much of both wars.

Lastly the Afghan Lewis Gunner from Empress, a lovely miniature who was easy to do at the same time as the rest mixed in..

So the Sikh box is full with no room for commanders, artillery or the latest small unit of matchlocks, you get a feel for the force below with 7 units of cavalry and 7 units of foot in the box.

This collection feels like it is finally starting to take shape now, still a while before a large divisional game though and a long way off being half way through the project even but I feel like its the end of the begining even if its not the begining of the end!

First Carlist War Sharp Practice AAR

Steve wanted to try a Sharp practice game using  the First Carlist War figures from my collection. He also wanted to get his new fantastic terrain boards in use. Nice little 6 x 4 with a hill in the middle and a beck at one side.

The terrain was marvelous but then Steve does it for a living so......

Steve had taken time after our last encounter to read all the small print and digest much more of the rules. Whilst we had got the core bits right there was a lot we had got wrong or simply missed so tonight would allow us to do much more with the rules which was interesting.

Mark and Chris would command the Carlists whilst I had the Isabelino's supported by French Foreign Legion which the Carlists had to drive off.

Mark had a formation of two groups of 8, a formation of two groups of 10 militia and a skirmish unit of 6. Chris meanwhile had a formaion of 3 groups of 8 and skirmish screen of 6.

I had two formations of Legionaires each with two groups of 8. Better quality troops we had a couple of advantages in abilities. in my centre I had a formation of two groups of 8 Isabelino's and finally a skirmish group of 6 in a wood on my right flank.

So my 7 agaisnt their 9 but my quality was a little better, especially the Legionaires.

My game started extremely well, a volley from the Foreign Legion into Marks skirmishers saw 5 rolls of a 6 from 8 dice, a second roll of 8 dice and some poor conversion dice from Mark converted this to 3 dead and 4 shock markers, that is until Steve realised I did not have any angle of fire as units can only fire dead straight foward unless skirmishers. DOH! Marks figures are brought back onto table.

My skirmishers make up for it though with a shot into Chris's skirmishers causing him a casualty straight off. He responds by firing into my Isabelino formation and causing a casualty and four shock.

Marks Carlists cross the stream and take a point of shock each whilst my Legionaires open up in earnest and start to thin the ranks slightly.

The Isabelino line takes some casualties and then its TIFFIN, time to reshuffle.

The Carlists quickley get three cards and then the activation for Chris's formation of Carlists, using the Card to add a crashing volley doubling all shock my Isabelino line takes a very thorough beating and now has a total of of 5 casualties and 11 shock.

My Isabelinos get an ineffective volley off at Chris causing a couple of shocks but he is able to hit me again adding even more casualties. I pull whats left of it out of range to try get it reformed.

On the other side the Legion with their ability to fire controlledd volleys are fairing better and Marks first Carlist unit is starting to take some significant ammounts of shock.

Whislt I am at that though his skirmishers are picking off my middle unit again of Legionaires. As an aside Steve has made some really nice shock markers, obvious but in keeping, I really like these.

Fire from my Legionaires now drives Marks first unit back and begins to tell on the Carlist Militia whilst his skirmishers continue to damage my middle unit. On the right though my skirmish screen prsses forward on Chris's flank and begins to inflict casualties which he cant return beign out of arc. He starts wheeling hsi unit to face the threat which takes the pressure off my badly damaged Isabelino unit which I spend a few activations removing shock from.

The shock on the middle unit mounts and a lucky shot from Mark sees their commander shot out of his saddle, they are unable to do anything at all for a full turn and without a commander to activate them I must spend cards on them just to keep them re-loading and firing at the Militia.

Chris finally gets his firing line in arc of my skirmishers and his volley sees a casualty and a shock inflicted but in my activation I scurry back into the woods after hitting him back with a couple more shots.

The Carlist attack has largely stalled now and my Isabelino firing line is moving forwards to support the damaged Legion formation and give some much needed fire support against Marks skirmishers.

We could keep going and its still plenty in it but its after 10pm and before we all turn into pumpkins its time to pack up.

Another thoroughly enjoyable game with the skirmish screens getting the best of the fighting for both sides on this occasion, the rules are sinking in and are really good fun, thanks chaps.

We have a Persian vs Roman game at the weekend and intend to have another Sharp Practice next week , this time using my Sikh Wars figures for the first time and see what irregulars fight like in the rules. As always I will keep you updated.

Cheers for now, see you soon.