Clash of Spears: Force Projection

This week we ran a game of Clash of Spears. My Gauls tangled with my friend’s Greeks in a Force Projection scenario. To wit, both forces are trying to take the center of the table, and also try to push into their opponent’s deployment zone to effectively jockey for territory, either as prelude to a further battle or just to expand their army’s footprint.

The Gauls swept to the center with their foot, while the javelin skirmishers captured the vineyard on the left flank and the mounted Nobles skirted around the right flank, testing for weakness.

The Greeks faced off across the meadow. Citizen Hoplites formed a solid core to contest the center, the Thureophoroi raced through the woods, while the Peltasts and Slingers favored their right flank overlooking the vineyard. The Veteran Hoplites hung back protecting their deployment zone on their left flank, since he knew I had cavalry.

As per usual, we took plenty of pictures early on but as the game kept going we forgot.

Highlights of the battle:

-The battle began with the Gallic skirmishers taking the vineyard, hoping to use it as cover to work around the left flank. Instead, a unit of Peltasti got aggressive and attacked, killing half the unit and pushing them back.

-In response, a unit of Gallic Warriors, which had also hoped to use the vineyard for cover, poured through the rows and pounced the Peltasti, wiping them out.

-The Greek Slingers rained death down on the foot Nobles. Despite range they got several hits, who also despite the odds failed their saves. After a few rounds of sling fire half the unit was killed. Those Nobles needed to speak with their armorers…

-Thureoporoi snuck through the trees in the center, breaking cover to try to work around the shieldwall of a unit of close order Warriors. Unfortunately they got too close and the Warriors broke formation to charge them. In the subsequent melee the Greeks were wiped out. This did leave the Warriors vulnerable to counterattack…

-The Citizen Hoplites advanced on the center, holding the objective most of the game. They crushed the unit of Warriors and finished off the decimated Nobles.

-The Greek commander survived a volley of javelins, then rushed to hit the weakened Warriors unit in the center, finishing them off and almost panicking the mounted Nobles off the table.

-Mounted Nobles were kept from the Greek rear lines by the reserve Veteran Hoplites. They tried to launch some attacks in response to Greek movements but the reaction tests were not happening. In the end they Nobles got pinned by the Veterans, the fight killing half of both units. The Nobles hung on however, while the Veterans were broken. They also survived an important Break test from the nearby Warriors getting wiped out.

-Weathering a round of shooting from the Slingers, the Warriors broke cover from the vineyard to charge the Greek skirmishers. After seeing them off, the Gauls took the next turn to race over the hill to claim the Greek rear deployment objective.

-The game ended with a roll-off of Break tests. The Gauls had to roll first, passing the first test, then the second. The Greeks then rolled in another round, failing, which made them quit the field. Both sides had been properly slaughtered (5 Break points for the Greeks, 4 for the Gauls). Hope the field was worth it!

Saga: The Vertamocorii

I’ve been playing lots of Age of Magic for Saga. Most of the armies have been converted from my historical forces for Saga: Age of Vikings, Crusades, and Hannibal.

One force I’ve played recently was the Gauls form Age of Hannibal. The Vertamocorii were a tribe from Transpadene Gaul in northern Italy. Easily enough, I’ve modified my units to fit either the Horde or Lords of the Wild factions for Age of Magic. In my last game, they were the Horde.

The force I fielded against a friend’s Wood Elves (Lords of the Wild) were a mounted Warlord, 8 mounted Hearthguard, 2×10 Warriors, 12 sling Levy, 3 quadruped Creatures, and a Sorcerer. The Wood Elves faced me with mounted Warlord, 10 Hearthguard (Dryads), 2×8 Archer Warriors, 3 Wolfen (biped Creatures, a Sorcerer, and a Treant Lady (Titan Monster).

The newest units were the Sorcerer and the quadrupeds.

The Sorcerer is a Beastman Shaman, wearing the colors of a druidic faith, appropriate for standing with the Gauls. His robes are white, with a red inner hood and sash for color. His gear is properly primitive, with a staff of piled skulls. The human skull at the top features a triskelion, using red stones in the eyes as part of the pattern. A checker pattern runs down his mask, tying him with the Gallic host. I have another Sorcerer I use with the other human armies, but he seemed too civilized. This Beastman will stand with the Gauls or Northern Baltic armies when I use them.

The Beastman Shaman is a Warhammer Fantasy model from 5th edition, so quite old at this point. I like the sculpt, and it lacks obvious Chaos iconography. It does have the problem typical in that era’s sculpts, being more or less on a single axis. It looks good from the front or back, but not much to speak of from the side. I painted him with swarthy skin and black fur to contrast with the robes and kept the rest of the color scheme simple. A small stone with carved spirals from the WHFB Dryad kit was a nice bit of base decoration.

Another new addition is a unit of Wild Boars used as quadruped Creatures. These are from Malifaux. Other boar models exist, such as the boars for Orc units from WHFB, but I wanted realistic sculpts to match the Gauls’ truer 28mm sculpts. The boars weren’t as big as I wanted at first, but placing them on 50mm bases helps make them look bigger. The boars seem proper creatures in support of a Gallic force, what with boars being totem animals used in their standards and iconography.

The last extra unit for the Gallic AoM force is a Cockatrice. I painted this a while ago, and it’s been used for several armies as a Scourge. I like using it for the Gauls, as like the boars, rooster imagery is common.

Saga: Age of Hannibal- The Gauls

With the arrival of the Age of Hannibal expansion for Saga, my Gauls now have another route to take the field. The army was originally built for Clash of Spears, which I managed to play a few weeks ago. Still a great game! But I really was looking forward to Saga’s take on my favorite mustachioed madmen.

The army converted to Saga was almost unchanged, with a few additions. I had to create a mounted version of the Warlord (Saga Gallic Warlord is always mounted, whereas the Clash version has a choice of foot or mounted). I also had to add a pair of extra Gallic Nobles to field 2 points of Hearthguard. I already had a full 2 points of foot Hearthguard. They can also be mixed into the Warriors units to pad out their numbers.

Next up are a couple units of Warriors. These didn’t require any changes, though I added a few more random Warriors models just in case.

Alongside the Warriors are a couple units of Levies, the Juves. One unit is armed with javelins, the others have slings. Since I would only field 1 of these units at a time, their standard bearer can join either one.

Here is the army massed for their first game of Saga. I played a friend’s Republican Romans in a standard Clash of Warlords fight. He was subbing in his Late Romans for Early Romans, which explains all the pants and pepperpot hats.

The first game went very well, with the Gauls able to unleash lots of dice in combat and move bunches of units all at once.

My usual army will be a mounted Warlord, 2 points of mounted Hearthguard (8 Nobles in one unit), 3 points of Warriors (24 Gallic Warriors in 3 units of 8), and 1 point of Levy (12 Juves with javelins or slings; ruleswise Gauls can’t take slings, but I had painted up the unit for Clash, and since bows and slings have the same range, I just use my slings instead).

Last up is a preview of the next force for Saga and Clash- Greeks!

Saga: Warlords

I’ve finished a trio of mounted Warlords for my Saga forces. While I have specific models for my factions, there are a few groups of miniatures that can be used for multiple. The Welsh models also can stand in as Britons or Irish, Anglo-Saxons can also be Anglo-Danes or Vikings, Polish can also be Northern Crusaders or Russians, etc. A good way to differentiate the factions is their Warlords.

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First is the Baltic Pagan Warlord, leading the Pagan Peoples faction. He represents an Lithuanian or Curonian chieftain, riding his armored charger into battle. I built him from a mix of models, the horse and rider coming from Fireforge Russian Druzhina, with arms from the Fireforge mounted sergeants. I wanted to show that despite wearing heavier armor, his arms are still relatively bare. A further nod to his ‘wilder’ culture is the wolf-skin cloak, swiped from Warhammer.

To show the influence of the Russian and Central Asia, his clothes and armor are colorful, with bright patterns and contrasting hues. The mount’s padded armor is a deep red with golden yellow trim, a variation of that combination also appearing in his shield design and the pagan rune.

Second is a Welsh Warlord. While no one else in the warband is mounted at this point, I like the option of giving him even more speed and maneuverability for the faction. This model is unchanged from the Gripping Beast metal, with the addition of a shield hung off the saddle. The shield shows off a dragon design.

His clothes are pretty simple, with a rich red cloak and off-white tunic. The Horse was painted up to be a Welsh Cob, with a dappled grey coat and white legs.

Last is a Gallic Warlord, a chieftain of the Vertamocorii of Transalpine Gaul in Italy. He wears a colorful mix of plaid tunic and striped pants, with a deep green cloak. He carries a blue and red/yellow checkered shield as he leads his tribe in battle. His bronze helm is topped by a plume of feathers, and a trophy head hangs from his saddle.

The miniature comes from Victrix, using the same kit as the rest of the Gallic cavalry from the army. I wanted to add a mounted option to my Gauls’ leaders for Clash of Spears, but the new Age of Hannibal expansion for Saga gave me the push to finish him. My Gauls will serve for both games, with little actual change of the unit compositions (I planned out groups of 8 for units, which works for Nobles/Hearthguard and Warriors in either system).

Something to note for my Warlord models. I usually add some sort of battlefield debris to the bases for decoration. It’s almost always a cast off shield of an enemy warrior, so the Pagan gets a Teutonic knight’s tower shield with German cross, the Welsh rears over a Norman kite shield, and the Gaul has a Roman Velite’s small parma shield. The Velite shield has a bit of arterial spray, suggesting the previous owner’s fate.

I’m working on some more models to expand the Gauls for both Clash and Saga. More to come.

Clash of Spears: Lords of Gaul

My Gallic force for Clash of Spears has been completed for some time now, but I realized I never posted some of the units.

The Gauls are led by a couple of Chieftains. These models were the metal characters from the Kickstarter Gallic starter box.

The first is the army leader, standing on a rise of rock overlooking the battlefield. I liked the contemplative nature of the model, representing a strategic mind for this leader. I placed him on a pile of rock to elevate him above the rest of the army to make him stand out. The shield and feather headdress were added to the metal model, taken from the Victrix plastic set that I used for the rest of the army. He got some flashy color and bold plaids, befitting a chieftain.

The second in command has a more stern posture, both gruff and intimidating. He got a princely purple and green color scheme, with a suitably bold shield design.

Last up is a unit of Gallic Slingers. They cost the same as the Juves with javelins, so I can swap them out if I want from some games. The models are metal from Warlord Games’ Hail Caeser line, so they look a little different from the Victrix ones. I prefer the sculpts from Victrix, but these will do. I’ll get around to painting up a couple more members for a full unit of 8.

I have left over Warriors and Nobles from the plastic set, so will eventually expand the force (and build up for use in the eventual Age of Hannibal rules for Saga).

Field of Glory: Carthaginians Army

The Carthaginian army I’ve been working on has been finished. the 600 point force is now able to match the Mid-Republic Roman force I painted a while back on the tale. I love the site of two fully painted forces, especially if I did both of them.

The full force.

Maharbal, Hannibal, and Mago.

This is the finished force, with Hannibal, Maharbal, and Mago in command, leading 2 units of African Spear x6, Gallic Foot x8, Gallic Cavalry x4, Spanish Scutarii x6, Spanish Cavalry x4, 2 units of Numidian Light Horse x4, Numidian Javelinmen x6, Balaeric Slingers x4, Elephants x2, and the camp. The extra unit of Libyan Javelinmen x6 and a couple more stands of Balaeric Slingers are included.

Gallic Foot, Cavalry, with Libyan Javelinmen in front.

African Spear with Numidian and Balaeric skirmishers. Elephants bringing up the rear.

Numidian Light Horse and Spanish Cavalry.

 

To commemorate the completion of the army, we played a game (what else?). I played as the Romans and the owner of the two armies played Carthage.

We played somewhere in the foothills of Italy. The field had a series of low and steep hills on the left side (brown and dark brown terrain respectively), with fields and vineyards on the right (tan and green). The Carthaginians took the center with their Cav and Light Horse on the flanks, while the Romans’ smaller army forced them to spread out to cover ground. They had the steep hill and vineyards to protect their flanks.

Carthage surged forward, slowed by Roman skirmishers until they were chased off. The Gallic Foot and Scutarii advanced, with the African Spear behind them in a second line. The big steep hill on the Roman left flank served to dissuade the Carthage flankers, so they shifted to the Roman right. The Romans responded with their Legions shifting to hold the low hill in the center and sending their Cavalry around on a long right flanking maneuver to help their Numidian Light Horse chase off the Gallic Cav and repositioned Carthage Numidians.

The armies arrayed- Carthage on left, Rome on the right.

The battle lines close.

Getting closer.

Roman Legions await the enemy on the low hill.

Overhead of the armies right before the clash.

As usual I forgot to keep taking pictures toward the end of the battle. The Carthaginian line hit the Romans. Scutarii met the Italian Allied Spear, while the Gauls stormed up the hill to the Legions. The Italians lost a stand but held the line, while the Legions just straight out-rolled the Gauls, pushing them back. The Legion on the right side fought the Elephants, killing them with some truly bad rolls from the poor hephalumps. By the end Carthage lost the Gallic Cav, Balaeric Slingers, a unit of Numidian Light Horse, and the Elephants, and the Gallic Foot were teetering. Rome didn’t lose any full units, but their Numidian Light Horse and one unit of Velites were shaky.

Now that I’ve finished the 600 point forces, I can move on to expanding both armies to 800 points. More battles to come!

FoG: Hannibal

The Carthaginian army for Field of Glory is done!

The units have all been done, so all I had left were the commanders and the camp. The commanders all had the same kit of three mounted Libophoenician horsemen. To counter this, I mixed up the models, adding in extras from other groups. The Roman commanders got a similar treatment, though I had no other recourse than to use the same model for all three of their leaders.

First up is the man himself, Hannibal Barca, scourge of the Romans. He sits poised on his horse, leading his troops. Alongside him is another Carthaginian officer, and some close bodyguard spearmen. I wanted Hannibal to be distinctive from other cavalry bases. The rear of all the commander bases got white markings to make them easier to find on the table. Hannibal got an ‘H’ to make him stand out more.

Next is one of the subordinate commanders. I figured this could be Maharbal, the Numidian officer in charge of the cavalry wing of Hannibal’s army. With that in mind he got an escort of Carthaginian horsemen.

The third commander could be Mago, Hannibal’s brother and trusted commander in Italy. He is escorted by a Gallic Noble model, to emphasize the mixed nature of the army’s forces. Mago is a bit of a conversion, since I modified his pose so he wouldn’t be a simple clone of another commander stand model. I usually make the third commander stand only a pair of models to make them distinctive from the other stands.

Last is the army’s camp. It uses the same model set as the Roman camp, including the tents, slaves/servants, wagon and stake fencing. I set it up similarly to the Roman camp, but swapped the camp guard for Carthaginian spearmen (including one wearing captured Roman kit). The stake wall is still being worked on, with a pile of stakes waiting to be sunk in the lower right corner. Rules-wise it wouldn’t count as fortified.

There’s still plenty of models left to work on to expand the army, but that’s for later.

 

FoG: Horsemen

More units for the Carthaginian army for Field of Glory. This time it’s the heavy cavalry contingents from allied tribes.

 

First up are the Gauls, the mounted nobles. These were painted in the same fashion as the Gallic Foot Warriors, with a little brighter coloration in places to show off their higher status. The models have the little problem of duplication, as the normal unit has only 2 model poses (looking forward or to the right) so I mixed in a few nobles in mail. At least there’s a little variety of horses.

 

Next are the Spanish Cavalry. I posted some stands previously, but here is the full unit of 4 stands. Rules-wise, they fulfill the same role as the Gallic Cavalry, being fast crushing flankers or fair direct heavy hitters. These match the Spanish Foot from before.

Last up are some javelin skirmishers. These are Libyans, but fight the same way as the Numidian Light Foot from before. The unit is optional, as it doesn’t fit into the usual 600-point army, but could be used for larger games. The unit unfortunately uses the same duplicate model for all stands, so I had to get creative with posing and painting.

With that the army is effectively done. All that’s left are the commanders and camp.

FoG: Carthaginian Reinforcements

The Carthaginian army brings on some very useful support units. The army is coming along, with only a few battle groups left.

 

First up are the Gallic Warriors. This large unit hits like a freight train in the Impact phase, equal to the Romans. I really loved the huge variety of the Gallic models, with the only real repetition being the naked Warriors mixed in with the clothed ones. They were fun to paint, featuring tons of color and pattern, especially compared to the more Phoenician Carthage color scheme of red, white, and bronze.

I based the Gauls’ clothes and shields on some references I’ve collected. I also based some off my own Gauls for Clash of Spears. I like to think my own Gallic force for that game is mixed into this mob. Talk about a difference in scale.

Painting checkers on 15mm minies isn’t easy, but it came out pretty nicely.

The second pic shows off the second rank, as well as a view of the rear of the unit. I added a few stripes on capes, but even I don’t want to do plaid on cloth at this scale.

 

Alongside the Gauls, the army features a couple stands of Spanish Cavalry. The unit will have 4 stands in the end. They follow the same color scheme as the Scutarii Medium Foot.

Last but not least are the Elephants. The tanks of the ancient world, they do look pretty impressive in 15mm scale. The models were relatively simple, so I kept the color scheme simple as well. A note on the miniatures: like many Essex kits, they have a ‘same model’ problem with the crew (2 of the model with the spear and left hand resting on the howdah rim). I had no choice on the handlers, but I swapped out the second howdah rider model from each elephant with one of the African Spearmen sculpts to add some variety.

Next up, finishing the Spanish Cavalry, the Gallic Cavalry, the commanders, and the camp.

Clash of Spears: Gallic Cavalry

The Gauls for Clash Of Spears finally get some elite cavalry. This unit of mounted Nobles will be a true terror on the table, combining speed, toughness, and crushing impact in one long-mustachioed package.

I painted the unit in the same manner as the foot Nobles. They did get some slightly nicer clothes, with brighter colors, since these are the richest members of the tribes. I went for a good variety of shield designs, from the standard checkers, vines, and moon symbols, to a pict of a horse, indicating a worshiper of the Celtic horse goddess Epona.

I kept the bridles and harnesses on the horse simple color-wise, though they all have shiny medals dotted around their mounts’ bodies. Gauls loved the bling.

Like the foot Nobles, the models are from Victrix, with a great variety of poses, arms and heads, so they all get to be unique.