Monday 22 December 2014

Indian vs Later Persian: a one-off game

I became a little jaded with one-off games (hence the ongoing campaign), but sometimes it's good just to play a game for the sake of it. It's also a good use of figures that won't play a part in the campaign battles, because they are out of season, if you know what I mean:
The Indian right wing (Billy) deploys: a formidable mixed array of cavalry, elephants and foot fronted by skirmishers, and with chariots in reserve.
Their centre comes out of the box: more infantry and elephants. Graham ended up in command here.
Their left (Simon): similar to the right wing, although not quite so strong. Simon supplied the army and set it up.
My command on the Persian left: lots of cavalry. Gordon brought in his army and deployed it; my orders were simple: try to keep Billy's weight out of the centre.
Gordon commanded the centre, which comprised all of the heavy stuff: mercenary hoplites and Persian heavy cavalry with a decent skirmish screen.
Malcolm ran our right, which was a similar force to mine, and had the same orders.
A long table side shot taken after the first moves, from my flank. The Indians are simply rumbling forward, shooting as they go. in the right foreground are my light horse, sent out as a bit of a forlorn hope, the intention being to see if they can do something disruptive.
My view at this stage. Notice my massed cavalry cowering.
Billy's force continues its relentless advance - he seems pleased enough...
Another long side view. From what I remember, Malcolm was being just as cagey as me on his flank, while Gordon pushed forward in our centre, trusting to the heavy stuff to break through.
Things are getting a bit tight on my flank. I have sent the heavy cavalry column at the top right of the photo forward to try to create a traffic jam and slow down the enemy. Only following my orders...
 
Another side view. The only part of our army that has any forward momentum is Gordon in the centre.
I am still holding, but Gordon is having a really bad time to my right.
A close-up for the sake of it.

Graham burst through some of Gordon's heavies, but then disaster struck the Indian army. A badly mauled elephant unit was destroyed by massed skirmishers, causing an Indian foot unit to rout, which cascaded, taking two more with it. It really looked as though the Indians were going to win handsomely up to that point.

It was a nice to change to play with figures we don't get to see very often any more because they are no longer in the campaign. Having said that, the campaign will probably slow down a bit because we need to paint other troops, so we will see a few more games like this one. A varied diet.

16 comments:

  1. Looks great Paul! What a lot of lead you have up there!

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    1. Hi Simon, I was thinking the same about you! We are rather fortunate to have a core group of 25mm diehards who have all been collecting for decades. There's always something that needs to be painted, though...

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  2. A mass of beautiful figures, a pity not to see them often! Great report!

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  3. Too true, Paul. There are around 5000 things that need to be painted, here. ;-)

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  4. And I thought Mark Woods' table was a bright green.

    Great to see all those figures filling up the battlefield.

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    1. It's not so bad in person - I think the lighting makes it look slightly strange. Say hello to Mark for us!

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    2. Same with my table, I've tried to change the colour with not much success. looks great Paul, maybe I'll get to sit in on a game one day. (Don't hold your breath, no plans to come back as yet)

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    3. Hi Mark, it's good to hear from you. Hope you are having a good summer...

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    4. it was 39c outside today... nearly 50c in the factory. Lovely. NOT!

      Your games always look good and as I remember you were playtesting a new ruleset. How did it go and what are they called?

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    5. They are pretty much ready for publication, I think - Tactica II. It would be really good to see them in print!

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  5. Great looking game Paul! The massed Persian cavalry is impressive.

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  6. The figures look great. I like the idea of Persians vs Indians you don't see that often.

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    1. Thanks for looking - we'd also like to play Early Achaemenids against the Indians. That would be fun - and very colourful.

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  7. Nice batrep, a a good spectacle too. I was rooting for the Indians but alas they went down, hey ho.

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    1. Good to hear from you! We really thought the Indians had won, and then the whole centre collapsed. It was quite spectacular.

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