A skirmish in the desert 2

 

Shown from the Cataplanan right flank as the Vanha light riders start their flanking movement. This troop type is one of the ways my version differs from HoTT - I like light cavalry! These have a -1 on combat factors as opposed to Riders but move quicker. Being horse archers, they can also fire as archers but with a shorter range.

Taken from the other side as Vanha right flank makes contact.

I roll all the dice needed for combats before I start working everything out. I also use dice that are basically colour coded - again, less chance of a mistake. This game was noted for a lot of 1s... in this case resulting in two light horse elements die. The Vanha on this flank weren't doing that well at this point! The pikes and spears in the centre got a bit mixed up but I judged that they never had separated elements so they always rolled 1 die for the units.

But then, the Cataplanan army wasn't doing all that well on the other flank!

Here, the Cataplanan unit had a separated element so it rolled it's own die. Didn't matter; they both rolled 1. So one dead element, though the main body - which included the general - survived because their main opponents only rolled 2!

Meanwhile the Griffins were acting as true light cavalry in my book. Young's Law concerning light cavalry: Light cavalry should always deploy at the back of the army. The enemy's army. Elephants rolled a 1 and died!

The Griffons then went for the back of the enemy Knights but both overshot to stop the Vanha light riders obeying Young's Law.

 

Meanwhile the Vanha general sorted the Military Order protecting the Cataplanan left flank. Before the battle I wasn't sure whether to call the Vanha cavalry knights or riders - finally went for knights.

The Griffons bounced the light horse, looked around and decided...

... time to fly over the fighting cavalry and hit the Vanha knights in the back. The crossbows at this point were firing on the light horse stopping them from charging the rear of the Cataplanan general. In retrospect, one of them could have.

Meanwhile the centre was getting very messed up, though thanks to taking out those two elephants early on things were a lot better for the Cataplanans.

By this time the armies were compressed enough to allow me to take a decent photo of the whole action. At this point casualties were even but then the Vanha army lost the rest of their left flank knights. The two light horses elements were separated so would have rolled separately - didn't happen because one was just acting as a support in the rear of the Cataplanan knights.

Another 1 against a 6... strangely, this only led to a pushback, even though the pikes threw a 6. The Vanha spears weren't so lucky, so it proved a really disasterous round for the Vanha forces.

Anyway, the oasis was finally cleared by the Cataplanan pikes and the Vanha left flank was down to a couple of elements.

So time for the Vanha to pull back and leave the field to the victorious Cataplanans.

This was a bit of a bloodbath. Both armies finished up below half strength.

 Thoughts on the battle. Things went well. For the Cataplanans, the chickens died but the stars were the Griffons. Using their speed and ability to fly over other troops they provided invaluable support in a couple of combats and, although only 'directly' fighting the light horse, their presence helped take out quite a few Vanha elements - including two elephants. That fear factor also helped early on though that was the only 1 thrown over several tests for fear. Both sides threw a lot of 1s and a few 6s - dice throws certainly made a difference in this game.

A skirmish in the desert

 I've got quite a few Cataplanan and Vanha figures that have not yet tasted blood. Seemed like they deserved a chance. In this battle, the two sides are fighting for control of a desert oasis.

As a starter, few words on rules - usual make up as I go along to a certain extent. Everything moves at 8" except light horse (riders on -1 as far a combat goes).and flyers at 16"

Units fight as units or detached elements - as a unit, roll one die for combat, etc, treat each detached element as separate and rolls their own die. Detached elements have to stay within sight of main body.

Foot archers have a range of 16", horse archers and elephants 10". Ignore losing result if opponent not firing back.

Combat factors as per HoTT.

Beasts and elephants have a fear factor. Units attempting get within 4" of  a beast or elephant unit roll 1 die, roll 1 and must stop at 4". Beasts and elephants do not need to make this roll. Roll 2 1s in a row and a unit will not advance against that beast/elephant unit for the rest of the game! Incidentally, rather than beasts I should have made clear this includes things like flyers, dragons and other non-human elements.

OK, That's a basic outline. So the game:

The battle after the first move - nothing much happening yet and it's easier to take a photo with the armies closer to each other. The Cataplanans have sent the Griffons to occupy the oasis. Note that the Cataplanan pikes are being treated as a single rank! It just looks better having them on double depth bases.

Second move and things are getting sorted a bit. Both sides were set up with the infantry directly facing the oasis and cavalry, etc, placed on the flanks. In this case the Vanha left flank ended up outflanking the Cataplanan right. Because of this the Cataplanan right flank is being slightly refused.

A very slightly different angle... gives a slightly better perspective of the foreground showing the Vanha light horse outflanking the Cataplanans.

Meanwhile, in the centre, the first effect of that beasts rule... the Vanha foot rolled to see if they would move into contact with the Griffins and decided against it... they rolled a 1.

I'm leaving the post at this point. Next post will start with this round's firing.

Vanha elephants finished

Almost. Just noticed I haven't painted on their beards!

I also keep thinking I should probably paint the inside of the elephant's mouths, but not going to.

So, bar basing and touching up some paintwork, elephants all done.

 Next thing to do - line up all my elephants as a Review.

Some non-Garrison Vanha

Saw these Minifigs on E-Bay and thought 'they would make a good Vanha elite/fanatic/whatever unit. They are down as being from the collection of Stuart Asquith. Actually, years ago I sold a load of my figures to Stuart Asquith, just it was a different Stuart Asquith.

Like the red and black colour scheme - simple but effective. Couple of figures have broken swords, easily hidden.

I'm thinking of basing these as 3Wb - I can then start thinking of religious fanatic 'militias' to counter religious orders on the Cataplan side. I already have a unit of 'Teutonic knights' that can be used for those. When I get things set up I'll have to set them all on the table.

Two different figures - they were bought as two separate lots.

Thought while typing this - would look good used with one of my Genie figures...

Quickly reaches up to shelves above PC, plucks Genie from a shelf, snaps it and inserts in blog - which means, of course, it probably won't be part of the clickable sequence above.

Vanha archers

Finally finished the Vanha archers. I've mounted them as (DBA classification) as 3Bw - they're only going to be used with HoTT rules in Fantasy battles and their are no skirmishers in Fantasy battles - everyone has a big sword and finishes up using it.  Having said that, if I ever get round to doing the javelin armed Vanha I'll probably put them on Ps bases. I've stuck to the basic Vanha 'green' scheme.


One thing I've never been is consistent. I did 18 of these on 6 bases, should have 12 on 4...

 

I mean, the spears are on 4 bases... 

With the swordsmen and possibly another spear unit (4 or 6 bases?) this will give the Vanha a reasonable infantry component. 

Being on a roll, I've also undercoated the swordsmen - these will make good Palace Guards and I'm actually thinking of red turbans.

Vanha Swordsman

During my recent spell of casting I had (continue to have) serious problems casting the Vanha archer. It became increasingly obvious that it wasn't viable any more. So a new mould is in order, but they're expensive and I needed morte than just an archer to justify the cost...

When I did Aquiland and Nemidian moulds I sorted an officer for them. OK, new project, Vanha officer. Basically cut the spear off a Vanha spearman and replace it with a suitable sword. I now have masters for Vanha swordsmen...

Not sure how well they'll cast though - the sword is very thin and doesn't do all that well when attached to other figures. I can but hope.

Cataplana Republic reinforcements

One problem about the army of Cataplana is that it's quite small.

 

Especially as it's main enemy can field this lot:-

So, in a recent visit to Portugal (the modern name for Cataplana) I bought a few reinforcements. Actually, I might have gone slightly over the top...

 However, there's more. It seems that there are still a few griffons left in Portugal, so assuming that they were more common in the past I'll be adding a few to the army. By a happy coincidence Garrison made griffons - I'm going to have to go through things and see if I've got any cast up.

Another mammoth?

Why?

Felt like.

Mammoths and Spears

The Vanha component.

The extra 4 spears are finished, as are 2 mammoths.

The spears haven't been mounted on bases yet - my filler has run out so I need more.

 I did find enough filler for the mammoths though. Haven't spent as much time on these as I would normally. That's because the mammoth is a pain - the tusks don't fit very well in their slots so I've had to try and fit them as flush fittings. As a result the joint isn't very strong and if I knock them the tusks fall off. Normally, at the very least there would be some kind of decorative picture on the side of the howdah and probably a yellow line separating the two shades of green.

So, at the moment the 'Near East' Tarun/Turan/etc army  looks like this:

All that is now needed to complete this phase of the army is a unit of Vanha archers. After that? Trouble, armies are like Topsy, there are at least 2 cavalry and 4 infantry units I want beyond this, plus assorted monsters and beasties - must do a unit of tigers...

Breaking my own rules...

Never a good idea. One rule I have is 'always do a few extra - just in case.'

So, first unit of 12 Vanha infantry completed, my idea being 4 bases, 3 figures to a base. I've decided I don't like that, want 4 bases 4 figures to a base.... so I'm going to have to paint some more of the things.

Photos of the current batch show them unvarnished and unbased. The quilted armour was originally going to be the base colour and quilting highlighted in a lighter colour, but I haven't bothered doing anything else with it - looks fine real-size as it is.

S&S Vanha mounted Sultan

 Liked this figure the minute I saw it. At the time (1976/7?) it was brand new and just released. At that time I tended to paint figures up quickly and in full gloss - I still like gloss figures, always seems right for what are, basically, toy soldiers.

Not having another use for him at the time he tended to get the job of commanding my Achaemenids when I wasn't using Cyrus.