ENFILADE 2014 Report

Enfilade is the annual convention of the Northwest Historical Miniatures gaming Society(NHMGS). It is held on Memorial Day weekend at the Red Lion Inn in Olympia Washington. Although not as big as East coast conventions its still a great convention with lots of good games.

This year I put on two Tactica II games on Friday and helped my friend Gary put on Two Napoleonic Courier games 2nd and 3rd Period Saturday. The players seemed to enjoy all the games and Gary and I won "Best of Show" for the 2nd period Courier game on Saturday. I only managed to take some pictures of the 1st game we did on each day. Was just too much to do putting on back to back games and by the 2nd one each day, I was to whipped to remember to take photos.

The 2nd Tactica game was a lot closer than the first. The Romans were just 1 figure away from one of their Legions breaking which might have given the Ponts a victory. At any rate, the following is a write up of the first game. Below is the initial disposition of the Forces, pretty standard with HI in the middle and Cavalry and LI on the flanks.

Roman Army (Number, Type, Descr, FV, Morale, Weapon)

12    HC    Roman     5-6    V Javelins
12    HC    Roman      5-6    V Javelins
8    LC    Gaullic LC  3-6    V Javelins
8    LC    Allied LC     3-6    V Javelins
                           
8x9    FT    Legion I Cohort 5-6    V Pila/Swords
16x1   FT    Legion I Cohort 5-6    EL Pila/Swords
               
8x9    FT    Legion II Cohort 5-6    V Pila/Swords
16x1   FT    Legion II Cohort 5-6    EL Pila/Swords
                           
12    LI    Tribal    3-6    V Javelins
16    LI    Auxilia    3-6    V Javelins
12    LI    Auxilia    4-6    V Javelins
12    LI    Auxilia    4-6    V Javelins
                           
12    SI    Auxilia Archers    4-6 V Bows
12    SI    Auxilia Slingers    4-6 V Slings
12    SI    Auxilia Javelins    5-6 V Javelins


Pontic Army (Number, Type, Descr, FV, Morale, Weapon)
2    HC    Pontic     5-6    V    Spears
18    CAT ( I )    Armenian     5-6    V    Lance
12    CAT ( I )    Rhoxalani     5-6    V    Lance
12    LC    Skythian     3-6    V    Bows
8    LC    Thracian Light Cav    4-6 V Javelins
3    Scyth ( I )    Chariot    5-6    MG    Itself
                       
48    PH    Brazen Shields    5-6 V    Pikes
32    PH    Phalangites    5-6 V    Pikes
48    PH    Ex-Slave Phalangites 4-6 V    Pikes
24    COH     Immitation Legion    4-6 V    Pila/Swords
36    FT ( I )     Bastarnae    4-6 V    Various   
                       
27    LI( I )    Thracians w/Romphia 3-6 V Various
12    LI    Thorakatoi    4-6 V Javelins
12    LI    Thurephoroi    4-6 V Javelins
                       
12    SI    Armenian Archers    4-6 V Bows
12    SI    Slings        4-6 V Slings
12    SI    Javelinmen    5-6 V Javelins

 Above is a view of the Pontic Set Up.

 A look at the Roman side Set up.

Here is a good view of the whole table and the opening moves. For convention games I roll for the terrain as per the rules ahead of time and then let the Players set the individual pieces up where they want them.

The Pontic Cataphracts failed to get Impetus against the Roman Cohorts and ended up eventually getting destroyed. Such is the roll of the Dice. Roman Pilum were unusually deadly though and reduced many of the Pontic 1st melee round die rolls. The Pontic Scythed Chariot however did get Impetus and did some decent damage, taking out a couple of Cohorts before disapearing.

Here is the crux of the Battle. In the middle you can see the Pontic Player has placed his Army General in contact with one of his Phalanxes. A very Bad Move and I even gave them a hint telling them so, but Hey! It's just a game. Phalanx wasn't outscored in Melee, but rolled an eleven for the General casualty killing him. Unit them had to roll for "Loss of General" which they failed making them disordered. Next turn they fight disordered with half melee dice and no rank Bonus. Disordered units who are outscored in melee must roll a Control Test which of course they were and they fail again. Good Bye Phalanx!

I count up the Pontic Broken units and come up with 138. Loss of General counts as 10% which in this case is 21 for a grand total of 159. Pontic Break Point is 151, so Game Over. It wasn't as bad as it looks. Roman Legion on Pontic Right had lost 52 figures, 7 away from Legion Break Point of 59. Other Roman losses at this point were 56 so if a Legion had gone with its 88 figures, the Romans would have been over their Army Break Point of 138.

View of the last Phalanx. You can see some of  the Cohorts are very close to being eliminated. Great game, the guys had fun playing. Lesson learned, do not risk your General by adding him to a melee with one of your units that counts for almost a third of your Army Break Point.

Second game used same forces but with slightly different terrain. Romans won, but just barely in that one.

Saturday's Courier Game (Get the Message Through).

On Saturday we did a Napoleonic Courier game in which players take the roll of Hussars or ADC's trying to get a message through from Napoleon to Ney. The game has an interesting history. I moderate a Yahoo Group for Napoleonic Skirmish games  https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/NapSkirmish/info?yguid=177542802.   A guy named Malcolm posted on there looking for some ideas for a game he was planning. Below is his original post"

"I'm designing a one-off game using 28mm which is for 4-5 French
couriers in the peninsula racing to get a message through enemy lines.
If at least one message gets through then the player with the most
boasts wins the game. If all messages are lost then the player with the
most shame loses. Boasts and shames are gained by having little
encounters along the way with British patrols, guerrillas, civilians,
and even priests.
The step I'm on now that is giving me some trouble is nailing down the
little narrative mini-events that can occur to our heroes. Most of
these might just be resolved with a die roll or delay him for a turn
and give either shame or boast.
In particular, what might happen when a courier pauses in his course to
explore a farmhouse. Surely one result will be finding some food and
another will be finding a maiden, but what else could befall him?
The tables that need filling out are Adventure at a farmhouse,
adventure at a bridge, adventure in the woods. Then I need to figure
out the interesting results that could come with parlying with
civilians and parlaying with priests.
If any ideas come to mind, send them along. My imagination is near
exhausted."

I gave him some ideas and he turned it into a game which was described here:
http://murat.ca/miniatures/28mm/steeplechase/AAR.htm 
At the Historicon Convention about two years ago, Gary and I met a guy, Chuck from Michigan who had taken Malcolm's idea and revised it quite a bit. He did a pick up game at that Convention which Gary and I played in and had a lot of fun. We enjoyed it so much thatI had Chuck send me his Rules. Its taken awhile but Gary and I finally got around to doing our own version at ENFILADE.

 

 We needed a long table to do this, but arrangement in the convention site prevented us from moving the table around as they would interfere with other games. So we did what Malcolm did and used a "U" shaped table where the Couriers go up one side and down the other. Above you can see the last of the Couriers fighting a British Patrol just past the Bridge. Others have entered the town for an "Adventure at the Tavern". There are 4 enemy patrols players must dodge and 4 "Adventures" they must participate in, the Bridge, the Tavern, the Farmhouse and the Woods.

 

Here is a view of thew other side of the Table showing the Farm House and the Woods. If you look closely, you can find Richard Sharpe, 95th Rifles Officer lurking in the woods. On one of the Wood's Adventures you may find yourself having to fight the renowned Richard Sharpe.

 In addition to the Patrols and Adventures, players must negotiate with a bunch of  irksome Monks before they can move on. In front of the Monastery is a patrol of Spanish Guerrillas. Heaven forbid if you get captured by them and have to roll of the Guerrilla Torture Table.
 

 Ok we're near the end now and one player has drawn an Adventure that gives him a friendly patrol of French Dragoons to accompany him for a couple of turns. They came in handy in fighting off a patrol of British Riflemen.
 

There is Ney at the end of the road awaiting his message from Napoleon. You can see it was really close with four Couriers contending to get there first. One of the players is a Spy who can win by riding past Ney. In the first game it was a kid who played but was revealed by the Farmer's daughter at the Farm House. He was soon thereafter killed by one of the other Courier's. In the second game, the Spy wasn't revealed but he was not close to the finish line at games end.
The guys had a lot of fun playing this one and Gary and I will probably do it again at next years Enfilade convention.

New Blog for Boxer Rebellion

I started a new Blog for our groups Boxer Rebellion games. Its located here: http://krautnrice.blogspot.com/
Its titled "Sour Kraut and Fried Rice" The adventures of Colonel Klink during the Boxer Rebellion. Colonel Klink is a figure from my 15mm Boxer Rebellion collection that we've had a lot of fun with. Here he is shown with some East Asia Brigade troops and German Marines.

Check it out.

What Mitch has been up to

In one of my weaker moments, I found some Victrix Napoleonics on sale on E-bay and couldn't resist. Sixty figures in a box. Wow! I thought. What a cheap way to get a bunch of figures.

 

When I opened them up. Wow! That's a lot of parts to put together. Much to my dismay, I found you had to glue everything on, heads, arms, back packs and sometimes legs. They were very fiddly.

Wow! Even more parts. So I put a few together to see how it went. The first batch wasn't so good. I was using Krylon white to  prime them with since it had worked well on other stuff. Well the paint must have been old or it was too cold, I don't know, but the paint clumped up on the figures obscuring the detail.

The first ones went into a jay of Simple Green to soak and remove the paint. Next I tried some artist's  Gesso as a primer based on something I read on the web. It worked alright, but I found it was a pain trying to paint the chest area due to the odd positioning of the arms and muskets. I managed to finish the two below and used Army Painter "Strong" stain on them.

Next two I tried painting before gluing the arms on. That worked much better, but was really fiddly. These two below I used the "Dark" stain and liked the result much better.

Here are some more of the first batch after removing the primer and some I left as there weren't so bad. There is also a mounted Afghan leader waiting to be painted for NW Frontier.

 Here its what waiting to be decaled and camoflauged for 15mm WW2 if we ever find a set or rules. the building on the left is being mounted for use with my Boxer Rebellion figures.

Rest of my Hetzers waiting to be assembled. One on the left by Command Decision are squatter. The FOW brand on the right is better proportioned, but more expensive.

 Here are some Brits being painted for NW Frontier.

 Another Box of Naps, this time from Perry Brothers. Much nicer and less parts to put together.

A view of the figures right out of the bow.You can see there are less parts to glue on. Don't know when I'll ever get to these. Another good deal I couldn't refuse. Found them at Fall-In Convention Flea Market being sold by a guy I met at Cold Wars last year.

Another project I couldn't resist. A German pre-dreadnought Brandenburg class battleship in 1:700 scale.

More fiddly parts and that's all the instructions you get.  Wonder how long this will be sitting around before I ever get to it.

Not shown. A bunch of 15mm Panzer IV's and V's. If we ever decide on a set a rules, maybe they'll get more attention. Just bought some Panzer Grey spray paint, so they'll be easier than doing the camo.

That's what is on my painting table. What's on yours?

New Years Day Battle: Greeks vs Pesians

Long time member of the West Sound Warriors, Gary Williams finally managed to get his Greeks and Persians painted and mounted. We decided to try them out on New Year's Day, 2014. These Persians are from the 480 B.C period during the time of Xerxes. Gary and Brad Philpot commanded the Greeks while Ron Berry and myself led the Persians. These were fairly large armies with lots of skirmisher infantry which mad the 8 X 5 table a  little crowded.

The Persian Army had nineteen units as follows:
Unit                Qty    Weapon
Persian HC           18    Jav/Bow
Median HC          18    Jav
Sakae LC             16    Bow
Caspian LC          16    Jav
Bactrian LC         16    Jav
Paricanian LC      16    Jav
Immortals 1         48    Spear/Bow
Immortals 2         36    Spear/Bow
Medes 1               32    Spear/Bow
Medes 2               32    Spear/Bow
Lydians                32    Spear
Bactrian LI          24    Jav
Chorasmian LI    24    Jav
SI  Ethiopians     12    Bow
SI  Jav-1              12    Jav
SI  Jav-2              12    Jav
SI  Jav-3              12    Jav
SI  Jav-4              12    Jav
SI  Pisidian          16    Jav

Greeks had thirteen units:
Unit                    Qty    Weapon
HC                      16    Jav
LC                      12    Jav
Spartiate PH       48    Spears
Lacedaimon PH  48    Spears
Messenian PH     48    Spears
Sicyon PH          48    Spears
Ionian PH           48    Spears
LI                       24    Jav
LI                       24    Jav
SI   Bow-1          12    Bow
SI    Jav-1           12    Jav
SI    Bow-1         12    Bow
SI    Jav-2           12    Jav




Deployments were pretty standard with Cavalry on the wings and Infantry in the center. The Persians greatly outnumbers the Greeks in Cavalry, but the Greeks had stronger infantry fighting power. The Greek Phalanxes had a FV of 5-6 while the Persian troops were only 4-6 at best. It would be a contest between whether the Greek Phalanxes could destroy enough Persian Units before they were caught from behind by the Persian Cavalry.

 A view of the initial deployments, Greek on the Right, Persians on the Left. Notice the large amount of Skirmishers. They mostly just got in the way.

Except for the Persian Right wing, the Persians mostly upon The Persian General's (Ron) orders stayed put and let the Greeks come to them. In the photo below, notice red uniformed Greek unit. That's the Spartiates in melee with the Chorasmian LI. Next to them Ron has maneuvered the Medes-1 Unit to apparently get a Wing Attack on the advancing Greek Lacedaimon PH unit.

 Here is a closer view of the Spartiates and Persian LI melee. As you may guess,the LI didn't last long.

 With the Chorasmian Light infantry gone,the Spartans wheel and catch the Medes-1 Unit in Flank. Disordered by the Flank Attack and outscored in the melee,the Medes-1 is soon gone allowing the Spartans to advance into the Flank of the already engaged Medes-2 Unit.

 Meanwhile over on the Persian Right Flank, the Persians are kicking Butt and starting to envelope the Greek from the rear.

In the Center the Immortals and the Lydians are holding their own, but the Spartan Juggernaught is getting closer.

 

 The Spartans with another Flank Attack, take out the Medes-2 unit and then the Lydians.

When the Lydians break they cause a morale test for the Immortals-2 unit. They fail which causes them to be disordered. Outscored in the subsequent melee they have to take another control test which they fail again. They break and that's it. Game Over for the Persians.

Game took about two hours to play and was a lot fun although it looked pretty lopsided. The Spartan Flank attacks did the Persians in and if not for those the Persian Cavalry might have been able to change the outcome. We are looking forward to another try with these armies.

A Queen of Sparta was once asked why Spartan women were given far more freedom and responsibility than the women of any other Greek city.  She replied, "Because we are the only Greek women who give birth to real men."

Second Battle of Blue Sky

 Our group decided to give this Battle another try using the same forces as last time. Tom Condon and Ron Berry played the Romans. Brad Philpot and I played the Armenians. We rolled for terrain according to the rules(3 rolls each) and the Romans received a flank Steep Hill and a regular Hill. The Armenians could only manage one Steep Hill. ( It's possible to get "clear terrain" when rolling). No woods came up. I divided up the Armenian Horse Archers into two units of eight instead of one unit of sixteen used in the previous battle. We're using the playtest version of the Tactica II rules by Arty Conliffe. Following is the roster of troops used. All are Veteran troops. Total points value is 1076 points for each side.


ROMANS      

No.     Size      Type     Name

1     14     HC     Roman Javelins
1     12     LC     Allies   Javelins              
9      8     FT     Legion I Cohort Pila/Swords
1     16     FT     Legion I Cohort Pila/Swords 
1     12     LI     Tribal Javelins
1     16     LI     Auxilia  Javelins               
1     14     SI     Skirmishers Bows
1     12     SI     Skirmishers  Javelins 
      Army Breakpoint=     71   
   
                  Armenian
      Size      Type     Name
2     8      LC     Armenian LC Bows
1     18     CAT(I)     Katoikoi  Lance               
1     48     PH     Phalanx Pikes
1     32     PH     Phalanx Pikes
1     24     COH     Imitation Legion  Pila/Swords               
1     16     LI       Iberians Javelins
1     12     LI     Armenians  Javelins                
1     12     SI     Armenian Bows
1     12     SI     Armenians Javelins
      Army Break Point=83 

 Here is the set up from the Armenian Side. LI and Horse Archers on the Wings. Pikes on Right, Cataphracts and imitation Legionaries on the Left. Had to use my phone camera for these first two photos. Almost fifty percent of the Armenian Army is tied up in the Pike Units. This means if the Romans can't Break at least one of the Pike units they must break every Armenian non-Pike unit in order to win.

This is a view of the Roman set-up.  They had all their cavalry on the Right flank plus one LI unit. Only one LI unit on their Left flank. All but one Cohort is "reinforced" ( i.e doubled up). Romans have ten "Massed" units to fight with. Armenians have eight.

Deployment and Opening Moves

In map above and photo below, Armenian LI is overwhelmed by the Roman LI and HC and soon routed. Armenian horse archers decide discretion is the better part of valor, do an about face and evade away from the more numerous and better fighting javelin armed Roman light cavalry. In the middle, the skirmishers launch missiles at each other and the Armenian javelinmen melee the Roman Archers in an attempt to take them out.

Opening Moves on Armenian Left

Mid-Point of Battle, Roman Left Collapses

At mid-point of the battle, the Imitation Legionnaires are no match for the regular Roman Cohorts and are soon defeated. The Armenian Horse Archers are still evading away from the roman light cavalry staying just ahead of them. The Roman Heavy Cavalry swings around and catches the Cataphracts in rear leading to their demise. Over on the other side its the Roman Cohorts that aren't doing so well. One Cohort breaks which causes morale checks by the others. Gods are against the Romans this day as the cohorts fail their morale tests and find themselves fighting disorderd against the Armenian Phalanxes. They are soon overwhelmed by the Pikes and sent packing. Right most Phalanx swings over to hit the Roman Light Infantry in flank quickly routing it. With loss of six Cohorts and the LI unit, the Roman are getting close to their Breaking Point (71).

Roman HC Breaks giving Victory to the Armenians

 Both sides, now having defeated the enemy's left flanks, attempt to wheel around to engage the remaining enemy units. The Roman Heavy Cavalry manages to catch the large Armenian Phalanxe in the side, but it is a wing attack, not a flank attack (See Photo diagram below for more info). One Armenian Horse Archer unit boldly charges into the Roman Heavy Cavalry to assist the Pike unit. They are in turn caught on the side by the Roman Light Cavalry. The Armenian Horse Archers are soon routed, but not before putting a few kills on the Roman Heavy Cavalry. The Roman HC is now at eight Kills and they break at nine. In the last melee, the Roman HC unit rolls badly not doing enough damage to the large Armenian Phalanxe. They in turn however receive several kills from the Phalanxe and they Rout away giving Victory to the Armenians.

It was a hard fought battle by both sides which could have gone either way depending on the die rolls.

Last Melee of the Battle

Critical Moment of Battle

 Roman HC attempts to make a Flank Attack on the Armenian Phalanx. This Photo has been modified to show the initial and ending position of the Roman HC. For a Flank attack to occur the attacking units whole Front edge must begin behind the target unit's Front line and the attacking unit's whole unit must end up behind the target unit's Front line. Neither of these two requirements occurred so the attack is deemed a "wing" attack which does not Dis-Order the target unit. In a "wing" attack the attacking unit gets Double Dice. The Roman HC started out with 6 figures in the Front rank and must divide their melee dice against all opponents. So they get three dice against the horse archers and get six dice(3 doubled ) against the Phalanx. With the Roman HC being one figure short of Break Point, there was no way for them to win. If they could have made a Flank Attack, then things might have been different. The Phalanx would have been disordered ( getting half dice) and if out scoured, would have had to make a morale test.

Small Tactica Game- Romans vs Armenians

Our last game held 19th October at Blue Sky Hobbies in Bremerton was intended to be part of an Ancients Campaign that Tom Condon is running. However, only Brad and I showed up and he had to leave about half way through. Fortunately, the new guy Kevin Walker had showed up and was able to finish the game for Brad.

We were using small Tactica II Armies of only 1076 points. This is about half the size we normally play with, but makes for a simple and quick game. I decided to do Armenians vs Romans this time to give the Ponts a break. Since the Romans are more complicated to play, I gave Brad the choice of which side to play. He chose the Armenians.  Composition of the armies is as follows:

            ROMANS      

No.     Size      Type     Name

1     14     HC     Roman
1     12     LC     Allies                 
9     8     FT     Legion I Cohort (Note: Romans deployed as reinforced cohorts )
1     16     FT     Legion I Cohort   
1     12     LI     Tribal
1     16     LI     Auxilia                 
1     14     SI     Skirmishers
1     12     SI     Skirmishers   
      Army Breakpoint=     71   
   
                  Armenian
      Size      Type     Name
1     16     LC     Armenian LC
1     18     CAT(I)     Katoikoi                 
1     48     PH     Phalanx
1     32     PH     Phalanx
1     24     COH     Imitation Legion                 
1     16     LI       Iberians
1     12     LI     Armenians                 
1     12     SI     Armenian Archers
1     12     SI     Armenians Javelin
      Army Break Point=95 

Opening Moves

With the exception of the Armenian Cataphracts which were part of the main battle line, both sides deployed their Cavalry and Light Infantry on the flanks. Armenians placed their Phalanxes on the right side of the main battle line with Imitation Legionaries in the middle and Cataphracts on the right. Romans put their reinforced 1st cohort opposite the largest Phalanx and their Heavy Cavalry on the side with the Cataphracts. With more men tied up in the Pike blocks the Armenians had two fewer units than the Romans to fight with. The Roman player was therefore hoping to be able to flank one of the Armenian Phalanxes.

Initial Deployment

In the opening moves, the Roman Light Cavalry (no doubt some reluctant Gauls) were sent packing by the Iberian Light Infantry. Over on the Roman right flank things were more even. The Armenian Light Infantry managed to get into position in the woods and drove off their Roman "tribal" counterparts, ( probably also some less than enthusiastic Gauls). The Roman Heavy Cavalry, however had no trouble defeating the Armenian Horse archers and advanced hopefully to be able to catch the Phalanxes in the rear. (Note: I forgot to have the Roman HC roll for "pursuit" which might have had them purse the Armenian horse archers, but in the long run it didn't matter. Game was over before they could make any difference).

Crunch Time,  HI in Melee

    

Mid- Game

The right two Roman cohort units advanced to occupy the hill in front of them and decided to wait for the enemy Cataphratcs to attack them. Meanwhile all the Heavy Infantry of the Roman left and middle met near the center of the field and began to slug it out. The Cataphracts eventually advanced to take on the two Roman units on the hill. The Armenian Light Infantry seeing the Cohorts locke din melee advanced out of the woods trying to take the end cohort in its flank. The Iberian Light Infantry on the other flank advanced to engage the Roman lights in the woods on top of the hill. The Roman Heavy Cavalry continued its attempt to get behind the Armenian Phalanxes.

The Armenian Cataphracts and the Imitation Legionnaires eventually broke leaving a huge hole in the Armenian Battle line. Unfortunately, the left two Roman Cohort Units broke soon after leaving the Romans perilously close to Break Point.  Using a break through move plus a couple of turns movement, the large Armenian Phalanxe caught the engage Roman Light Infantry on the hill in the flank and it was all over. The Roman Heavy Cavalry couldn't move fast enough to make a difference.

Final Positions

Armenian Phalanx catches Roman LI in Flank

In retrospect the Roman Units on the hill should have engaged sooner.They might have been able to make a difference, but sometimes it doesn't matter what you do. In order to win, the Romans had to break at least one of the Armenian Phalanxes. This they didn't do although one was fairly close ( 16 kills vs 21 needed to break). It was an enjoyable game however and thanks to Brad and Kevin for playing.

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