battle1

'Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition,' [ for my composite bow that is, ] goes the old saying, so with my rebirth into playing ancient wargames, using the, 'Warhammer Ancient Battles,' rule system, and with the completion of my Byzantine army, I thought I would share some pics of the battles they have taken part in. Also with the WAB league about to be run at SELWG in November, by Bill Pavely, and myself, with hopefully, some fellow Wargamers from the South London Warlords, and who knows, mabey members from some other London clubs, [ just e-mail for details me men, ] and, with already, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize's offered, from Steve Hales from Littlebigmen Studios, thank you Steve, I hope to generate some interest on here.

It will not cost anything to enter, as long as you have the commitment to play the required number of games, dependant on the number of players of course, and, if other clubs members wish to take part, and can't meet up on a Friday, at SELWG, one evening, I am sure your opponent can play at whatever club venue your club uses.

The final details have to be sorted out, and I will post them up here, but if you are interested, just e-mail me for the provisional details, and what club you belong to, and I will be happy to help. Our intention is to get the first games up and running by the end of November, hopefully some pics of the battles will be posted on my website and the SELWG site, and whatever club site you belong to, so come on guys get those armies dusted off/painted.

Firstly I would like to thank Kevin Dallimore for taking some of the pics of my, Byzantines v's Crusader game at SELWG, also some pics from the same game by myself, the next lot of pics from, Byzantines v's Early Imperial Romans.

By the middle of Alexius Komnenius reign, and using the reorganised the army that he had inherited, he had re-armed, and re-trained his native Byzantine cavalry with bows, armoured some of the front ranks of his cavalry and had brought in allies such as Seljuk Turks, Georgians, Latin knights and a host of other mercenary light cavalry.

It was with this army that I fought Phil Denny's Crusaders, using the excellent WAB rules system. This was Phil's first game using WAB, although, he was an experienced Warhammer Fantasy/40K player.

So, begin's my story of 'High Adventure,' [ cue, Conan the Barbarian music.]

We were trying out some extra additions to the WAB system in readiness for the start of our WAB league, now to be run in January, at SELWG.

12 maps were designated, where each player throws a six sided dice, and choosing the map diced for, if one player does not like the terrain, then the players can dice again, but, the result is final for this last dice throw.

We reintroduced scouting into the equation, 1pt for light infantry, 2pts for light cavalry, 50% more scouting, and the player chooses which side he comes on, 75%, and the outscouted player has to deploy first. We then throw a six sided dice, adding the result to your Generals command rating to see who goes first.

With Phil being well and truly outscouted hed had to deploy first, time for a cup of tea, never interupt a General whilst he deploys. [see map.]

With the deployment done, I had two plans set aside, Plan A, move around the wood on my right flank and threaten his left, whilst skirmishing in the centre, trying to keep away from his crossbowmen, hold on my left flank, and keep a number of heavy cavalry in the centre as a strategic reserve. Plan B, go for another cup of tea.

Well, as Phil won the dice off to see who went first, Plan B, was set in motion, well, I like tea.

Phil decided to take the initiative, and advance on his right/centre, whilst moving his left hand unit of Turcopoles and his knights to the left, which for his knights was taking some time as they were armed with everything but the kitchen sink. I won't give a blow by blow account of every move, but, needles to say after a number of turns the battlefield looked like map2.

With Phil moving his crosbowmen nearly every move, I was able to get in some devastating firepower, the unit of Turcopoles on his left, came under heavy fire, and loosing 5, out of six men, broke and fled. In the centre, his left hand unit of archers, came under heavy fire, and broke and fled after 2 devastating boughts of fire power from the Georgians, causing one unit of knights to test, just saving them with his Generals leadership. Casualties were mounting up on the crossbowmen in the centre, and on his left, again, after some sustained heavy fire from the Byzantine light, and heavy cavalry, well he did put them on a hill for all to see, they broke and took a unit of archers with them. It was time, no, not for me to commit the reserves, but for another cup of tea. I told you I liked tea.

With Phil's army over streatched, out over the battlefield, I put Plan C, into effect, yes, you guessed it, another cup of tea, [see map 3.]

The end came sudden, for Phil that is, with his Knights taking sustained heavy bow fire from 4 units of, Georgian, Turkish, and Byzantine light cavalry, loosing 4 out of 10 figures in the lead Knight unit, and being out of charge reach for at least another two turns, Phil saw the writing on the wall, and was made even more clear to him when a unit of crossbowmen, broke and fled, taking all his other infantry with it. Well he did throw 10's for their morale, Phil conceded the game, just to rub it in, I lost one cavalry figure, whilst Phil's casualties, from bowfire, were huge, even enormous, sorry Phil.

It was an enjoyable game, with Phil saying 'Well another army for sale on E-Bay,' I hope not, Phil had bought them from Gripping Beast at SELWG in October and had managed to paint them up in time for our game, thats good going, by anyones standard, he said he might use the spearmen and crossbowmen together next time, in bigger units.Thank you Phil for an enjoyable game, I look forward to our next meeting.

'I love the smell of composite bowfire in the mornings,'

Pictures of the game below.