15mm Romans, the Debut

My 15mm Roman ADLG army saw their first action last Tuesday.  My club mate Colin, our resident master tactician, used an ambush against me.  It wasn’t clear whether it was a real ambush, or cover for a flank attack, so I opted to responded to neither well. You can see them here emerging from the trees in the top left.

The main bulk of his Spanish came down the seashore and threatened my right flank, which was anchored on a hill covered in fields.  I tried a spoiling attack with my auxiliary cavalry, which chased off some of his skirmishers and caught the lead Spanish cavalry in column. 

The Auxiliary cavalry must have lost formation on the charge though, as they proceeded to lose the resulting fight.  Forgetting my Zhukov, I reinforced failure and my auxiliaries were overwhelmed.  The stalwart defence of the hill by the Sagittarii a bright spot in an otherwise disastrous holding action.

Meanwhile on the left the rest of my auxiliaries chased the Spanish light horse about and finally provoked the ambush to emerge.  They then got wedged between the returning light horse, now backed up with burning carts, and the scary Celt-iberians emerging from the woods. 

Whilst all this was going on my legionaries desperately attempted to wheel around and get into action with the Spanish tribesmen. 

My left wing general died heroically, but in vain, trying to stem the rout.  A notable fight on the far left saw Spanish and Roman skirmishers fight to the death, whilst Celt-Iberians and Roman heavy cavalry cheered in support. 

As dusk fell the legionaries finally managed to get to gladius-point and show the barbarians what real fighting is all about. 

With the sun setting on the day, and the Spanish general having an early start, we retired to our camp to write back to Rome about our great victory.  Due to the brilliance of my generalship, and virtue of Roman manhood, we had survived an attack by hordes of barbarians and retired in good order. 

Genuinely Ancient Romans

This has got to be my most procrastinated project.  My dad bought me most of these figures at the Armageddon show in 1982.  Still better later then never.  So, I now have a 15mm Early Imperial Roman army for ADLG.

Starting with the legionaries.  These are armoured impact heavy Infantry in ADLG terms, based with 8 figures on a 40mm x 30mm base.

Next are the Auxiliary Cavalry.  The Romans can have quite a lot of heavy cavalry.  It's not as hard hitting as some but not bad.  3 figures per 40mm x 30mm base.

Plus some additional more specialist cavalry.  A base of Cataphractii, who are heavy cavalry with impact, probably recruited from the Sarmatians, and a couple of base of Light Horse archers, Syrians or Judeans possibly. All on 40mm x 30mm bases again.

You get a lot of options with the main Auxiliary infantry but I have based them as medium infantry on 40mm x 40mm bases, they get impact and an option to be armoured.  I have also done one base of bowmen to give a little long range archery.

Last of the troops are some light infantry Auxiliaries, four with javelins and two with bows.  All 2 figures on a 40mm x 20mm base.  All could serve double duty as supports for the infantry if needed. 

For command bases I have these two below and the single legionary above.  I might find another mounted Roman officer at some point.  

All this gives me just a bit over 200 points, so there is a little room for fine tuning the list.   I can always add some other options later if need be.  All figures were from Minifigs except one officer that was from Essex miniatures.

Northern Barbarians

I have finished a few extra light infantry for my ADLG Alexandrian Macedonian army.

First up are a couple of bases of Alexander's elite Agrianian light infantry to lead the main attack.

To take this skirmisher role on the other flank I have painted up a couple of bases of Thracian javelin armed light infantry. 

I have gone for a mix between Hellenised clothing and a nod to their tribal heritage on the shields.

Alexander Returns

I have started re-basing my Macedonians for Art de la Guerre and adding a few extra figures to make a list legal 200 point army.

Alexander is based at the head of his companions, as an integrated commander in ADLG.  This isn't compulsory but it's where he should be.  The pink clad light cavalry are a base of Prodromoi lancer scouts.  These are all Foundry figures but I have another pack each of Prodromoi and Companions from Crusader to paint eventually.

The Phalangites are six to a base, which is a couple fewer than required under the standard basing but with the lowered pikes I can't fit more on a base.  The archers are going to be used as Cretan mercenaries.

To add more support I have some Thessalian cavalry, Greek Peltasts and some archers that can be Greeks or Macedonians.

Next up are some Agrianian and Thracian light javelinmen, then a separate command base of three figures. 

After that I just need to do some Hypaspists, and maybe one more command base, but I have some Greek Hoplites and Thracian allied swordsmen too.

More Numidians

I have finally completed enough of Juba's Numidians for a 200 point ADLG army.  Here are the latest additional bases. First are some Numidian Noble cavalry.  They are javelin armed medium cavalry in with the option to be elite.

Numidian Elephants are only mediocre units in the army list, being the smaller north African beasts.

I have two independent general bases now.  The third cavalry base is to represent some of Juba's Spanish and Gallic mercenary guardsmen. These are elite medium cavalry.

You can never have too many light cavalry to overwhelm the enemy with javelins.

Here are a few pictures of a possible 200 point army.  I have more than enough for this now, so can try some minor variations.

These last few are some older photos of the rest of the army.

The last figures I have to paint are a few light infantry bowmen using the excellent Crusader miniatures.  I've need a camp and maybe some specific  eventually too.

ADLG first full try

I played my first full one-on-one game of Art de la Guerre ancients rules last week.  100 points of my Numidians versus 100 points of Hellenistic Greeks commanded by my club-mate Freddy.

My Numidian army was:

• 5 Light Cavalry with Javelins, two of which contained my integrated competent generals
• 4 Mediocre Imitation Legionaries
• 4 Javelinmen
• 2 Light Infantry with Javelins
  

The Greeks were:

• 4 Hoplites
• 4 Mediocre Hoplites
• 1 Greek Peltast Javelinmen
• 1 Peltast Light Infantry
• 1 Cretan Archers
• 1 Slingers
• 1 Thracian Javelinmen
• 1 Greek Light Cavalry
• 1 Greek Medium Cavalry
• 2 Independent Competent Generals
  

Both players were still new to the game, so play was a bit slow but we had a blast and were mostly getting the hang of it by the end.  There's a long way to go to be good though.

The Greeks get quite a wall of spears and my infantry isn't great, so I placed my mediocre Legionaries on my left and the bulk of my cavalry of my right.  My intention was to delay contact with the best Hoplites whilst my Legionaries ground through the mediocre Sicilian allied Greek Hoplites.  My cavalry would range out wide looking for gaps to get onto flanks or behind the spears.

Freddy regretted putting his cavalry on the closed flank.  It might have been better to have my light infantry on the hill too but they were actually quite useful in the end.  Essentially we both made deployment mistakes.

 

The 100 point deployment isn't very wide, so my light cavalry started facing the side in column.

This is after a turn's movement.  Both armies advanced quickly, pushing their light troops forward

My mediocre legionaries, sadly my best close combat troops, faced off against the mediocre Sicilian hoplites.  Truly a battle of titans.

With the overlap and impact, I thought my legionaries would cut through the Sicilian hoplites quite quickly but a fist of ones later and the Thracian were the ones who had done the cutting.

On the other flank the Javelinmen, having seen off the Greek skirmishers fell back before the hoplites facing them to try and buy time for the legionaries and cavalry to do their work.

The legionaries slowly ground down one unit of mediocre hoplites but the Greek cavalry launched an attack on their flank.  On the other wing the Javelinmen had run out of space and turned to face the oncoming hoplites.

My light cavalry could easily out-manoeuvre the Greeks but struggled to destroy them.

Running out of space and with a hoplite unit turning to aid their Sicilian comrades the Javelinmen had to try to fight up close.  It didn't go well for them.  Some of the cavalry broke off from the flank fight and came to help.

In the final phase the Numidian light cavalry ran rampant behind the Greek lines, launching two successful attacks. The first slammed into the flank the Greek medium cavalry on the Numidian left.  Then a mirror image attack against a hoplite unit on the Numidian right.  Both targets units were routed but the hoplites on the other wing made short work of the Numidian Javelinmen in close combat.  

A count of break points at the end of this turn found that both sides had simultaneously reached their break point and the game was declared a draw.

I really enjoyed the game and the rules.  It's a very tactical but that was fun and you do get battle lines that slowly disintegrate, which felt historical.  The single dice roll-offs lead to some wild swings of luck, and 6-1 results can be frustrating, but things even out and those are the fortunes of war, even in miniature.  We will be playing ADLG again soon.