Fantasy game, Vampires v Woodelves

The weekend saw my dad and I return to a bit of Fantasy wargaming with a game of Warband pitting my vampire army against my dads Woodelves. The game was close for long parts, but in the end the Woodelves got the upper hand as my dad just seemed to rally his troops at just the right time. When my army was broken a quick scan of the battlefield showed that a number of Wood elves units were down to their final point of morale. Another really fun game using these rules and we both definetly now  that our battles are becoming a lot more tactical. Here are some shots of the action.

Tree Ents who are as tough as,and a unit of spears taking refuge in the comfort of the woods

My Gargoyles managed to quickly get around the elves flank and launched a charge at a unit of Spearmen 

However the Spearmen win the combat and tne Gargoyles fall back as the unicorns move into the fray.  The dire wolves also made an appearance onto the elves flank.

Slowly the Mummies and Thralls move towards the hill line

Werewolves hunt for in the woods for the elves kin.

The Werewolves charge from the wood into a unit of archers, as the Vampire Lord leads by example and charges into a unit of elve Spearmen 

This was were the thick of the action was to play out. The werewolves would destroy the archers but the Gou,s fighting along side were to be early destroyed. The Vampire Lord won his combat

With the Gouls destroyed the Stag riders and Spearmen have the initiative and make there charge first into the werewolves rear. The unicorns and Gargoyles both join into the combat with the vampire Lord.

The Tree Ents make hard work of the thrall archers before finally coming out on top

The mummies join the fight to lend there muscle to the combat against the unicorns

After finally destroying he werewolves to tree Ents and stag riders flank a unit of thrall warriors

To little to late as my vampire Lord wins his combat and pursues into the highly weakened elf Spearmen.

The final positions on tne battle field as the Vampire army defeated.

Italian wars AAR

Last weekend we got my dads wonderfully colourful Italian Wars armies out for a game of Pike and shotte. I took command of the French and my dad took control of the imperialists in a stand up battle. The first two turns saw my dad do his up most best to defeat himself when he managed to roll 4 blunders! Yep that was even worse than my record when it comes to rolling command dice. still my dad overcame these early set backs and took victory in a close game. I think what swung the game in my dads favour was he had a knack of rolling just enough sucessful saves to stop his units from becoming shaken where as I was failing the vital roll and becoming shaken. A good example of this was when I rallied a morale point on my black band pike unit only to suffer a hit from the imperialist Arquebus unit in the following turn and failing my saving throw shaking the unit and breaking the Brigade. My knights just didn't do it in this game and Francis proved to be somewhat of a poor cavarly commander really struggling to control his impetuous Knights. When my army was broken just about all the Imperialist troops were only one point from becoming shaken and breaking and the outcome could have been so different. Excellent game and a nice sized game for a evening game.

The French army 

The Imperialist Force

 

The armies ready to do battle

The French Knights fall short on the charge this time but when they do get into combat they start to get the upper hand against the Doanish Knights.

The lines of pikes cautiously approach each other, both of us struggled at this stage with command rolls

Francis and his French Knights charge to meet the Burgundian cavalry

The might of the Swiss pikemen advance towards the Spanish lines

Bad War! A clash of pikes sees a vicious  combat go to and fro over the next few turns, eventually in favour of the Imperialist mercenaries 

The Swiss pike surprisingly are repelled by the Spanish pike

And are hit in flank by the Spanish  swordsmen and break

The lines of the Blackband start to crumble

The moment the French army was broken and the Imperialist forces won the game

Francis and his remaining Knights quit to battlefield to fight another day.

.the Imperialist mercenaries break there Black band counter parts to win the fight in tne centre 

A bad day at the office playing Hail Ceaser

Well I'm beginning to believe that my Macedonian army is cursed, I'm sure I have not won once with this army and this afternoons game I certainly kept the losing trend up, really it was just one of those days. Basically my Macedonian army moved half way across the board stopped and then refused to move any further, It's not even as though they had been halted by a hail of arrow fire as the my dads shooting dice was at best Bad! No they just failed command rolls over and over again, chuck into the mix 5 blunders including one by my army General and a unit of companion cavalry charging a Indian archer unit only to suffer a casualty from closing fire, fail its morale test with a double 1 roll and rout and you start to get tne picture. By the time i chucked in the towel my army resembled a disordered rabble with no idea what to do or where to go ha ha, this was a sure example of a day the dice gods are against you. As much as it pains me I have still uploaded some pictures of the game although I'll spare myself the agony of writing a blow by blow account ;-) 

Javlinmen skirmish ahead of the Indian elephants

Thracian cavalry move around the house complex 

The Macedonian line stuttering towards the wall of Indian archers

Companion cavalry blunder their first attempt at a charge

Indian skirmishes Harry the Macadonian Phalanxs who remain rooted to the spot

The inevitable happens as the stationary Phalanxs are flanked as a result of failing their command rolls

I attempted a charge with my medium cavalry but they,yep, failed their order to do so.

The final action of the game as the companion cavalry break before they make contact with the Indian archers

Where did it all go wrong? The great inquest into their defeat begins........

And finally here is the first war elephant (magister Militum) painted to use for the Alexander successor period, a really nice model :-)