Magnesia phalanx

I realised, today, that I forgot to blog the pictures of my pike phalanx, from Partizan back in August. Here it is; most of my phalangites are drawn up, 32 ranks deep, 1048 strong, with elephants in the intervals, representing a section through the Seleucid phalanx at Magnesia. The full Seleucid phalanx at 1:1 would be 32 feet wide. :)

Magnesia at Crisis

I've just returned from a splendid trip to Crisis in Antwerp with mates Ian Notter and Andrew Brentnall. The show war excellent, the Tin Soldiers great hosts and I ran into dozens of wargaming chums including many who I've previously only met online. Andrew displayed considerable sang froid in the face of some challenging roadworks and diversions. Antwerp is a great city to visit and a good deal of food, beer and wine was consumed!

Here are some photos of the game, which we ran using my "To the Strongest!" rules. All the minis were painted by Ian, and he took the great photos, too.

Deployment; Seleucids on the left.  The mat is a gigantic "Sagebrush steppe" mat that I've had specially made; it is 16' long!

The Roman camp; my only contribution! The Roman legions are Donnington.

Seleucid phalanxes interspersed with elephants and screened by innumerable lights. The Seleucids are mostly Xyston.

View from behind the phalanx, towards the cavalry on the Roman right.

Roman triplex axies; we used the "alternative Polybian list- worked great!

Late in the battle- cataphracts charge! The Roman triarii fought like the veterans of Zama they were and skewered Antiochus!

The Roman line bows but does not break.

We had such a fantastic weekend- I very much hope to make it back to Crisis next year- perhaps with a different sort of pike!

Magnesia 190 BCE at Crisis

A quick reminder that I will be visiting the Crisis show on 5th November in Antwerp, bringing a "to the Strongest!" participation version of the Battle of Magnesia, 190 BCE. The game will feature my friend Ian Notter's 15mm collection, and Andrew Brentnall (with whom I'm working on the ECW rules) will be with us too.

We will be at g10b01 in Hall 2, near (but not too near!) to the toilets- I've circled the location in red.

We will run the game twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. If you would like to play, please email me via the address to the left.

I won't be selling stuff at the show, but if you would like to order anything from the BigRedBatShop for collection at Crisis, please do so and I will refund your postage and bring it over with me. Postage free and with the current low, low pound, it's a great opportunity to pick up a set of the rules, some of the chits or one of the excellent Deep-Cut mats at a very much reduced price! Last orders for collection will be tomorrow, Wednesday 2/11/2016.

Magnesia 190 BCE

Here's a shot of a scaled-down test game of the battle of Magnesia that Ian Notter, Andrew Brentnall and I plan to take to Crisis in November. The scenario worked very well- Antiochus smashed through one legion, whilst another legion did a number on the phalanx, so all in all pretty historical. We used 15mm minis and chits instead of playing cards. The cloth is a 4' x 3' Deep-Cut Wasteland mat with a 10cm grid.

We used the alternative Polybian list (which replaces the small hastati and principes unit with a single, special unit) - this worked really well. Do please drop me a line if you'd like a copy. In due course I'm likely to make this list "canon".

In other news, I will be at Broadside in Sittingbourne next Sunday with an experimental To the Strongest! fantasy game; hope to see some of you there!