Antigonos Monophthalmos and the Argyraspides

With all the figures I’ve bought recently and all the rebasing and projects I’ve started, getting the seven elements of successor pike done has not been a terribly exciting proposition. A few weekends ago I finished three of them (while I painted the ogres). The other four have their shields done and much else. Now I have the argyraspides (silver shields) completed and with them a foot commander, a special character, Antigonos Monophthalmos (one-eyed). They are all Freikorp figures. They had a couple of outings a fortnight ago against Joel’s Lysimachus; they failed in each.

Antigonos Monophthalmos leading from the front.

Another angle.

And another.

The Argyraspides used as a regular pair of elements.

Another angle.

And another.

I can now fight pike blocks against each other (though only four pike a side as yet). When the other four elements are done…

Recent Gaming

I’ve not kept up with reporting games I’ve played. Part of the reason for this is because I’ve only got a camera that is not all that satisfactory. I’ve taken better photos with my phone than with the small camera I’ve tried to use. The tripod is broken and can’t support the large camera I’d used for my gallery shots.
The other reason I’ve not been active on the blog is that I’ve been too busy painting (more in the next post). Anyway, I’ve played quite a lot recently, and had some very good luck. Here are some photos that aren’t too blurry.

• Battlecry, 16 Feb 2014

Last month I got along to Battlecry for a day of demo DBA games. We got a bit of interest and should be running a competition next year as a result of this. We played DBA 2.2, as noted earlier on MEDBAG.
My first game was against Joel, a historical matchup of my Early Seleucids against his Classical Indians.

Early Seleucids face Classical Indians.

The Indians up close (some are hidden behind the trees.

The Seleucids.

I should have been in serious trouble as the Indians came around my left flank in large numbers. However, they were obviously unfamiliar with scythed chariots, as mine proceeded to tear them to pieces. I came away with a lucky victory.

Chaos on the left flank.

Next I faced John, who’d just finished his Celtiberians. I used my Gauls.

Gauls v. Celtiberians.

View from the Celtiberian camp.

I managed to meet his warband with my cavalry and used this to my advantage in a battle on a narrow frontage.

Gallic cavalry triumphant.

I then faced Mike, who used my Carthaginians. I took my Syracusans. As we are both littoral, this involved a waterway, which ended up to my back. Mike went for a littoral landing.

Syracusan v. Carthaginians.

I hurried to advance to reduce the potential for the littoral landing party to make trouble. I was able to sack his camp (the crucified Syracusan was a provocation!) and used my longer line to outflank his elephants. Another victory.

The Tarantines return from sacking the camp.

I think we played some more games that I didn’t take pictures of. The last on my camera was my Syracusans against John’s Celtiberians. I don’t remember for sure if I won, but I think my luck was pretty strong, and I used my advantage in cavalry to compensate for the vulnerability of my spear to his warband.

Syracusans v. Celtiberians.

Unrecorded is our final BBDBA game of Carthaginians and Celtiberians against Romans and Spanish. This was officially a draw, but I’m sure the Romans had the edge when we stopped.

• Auckland City Guard

Since then, I’ve mostly played DBA 3.0. Joel’s visited after work a few times, and I’ve got to the City Guard again. We’ve had a lot of fun trying out his Aztec hordes of doom, and we tried out a number of permutations of knights against spear.
From memory the time before last we played: Normans v. Anglo-Danish, Early Crusaders v. Comnenan Byzantines, Aztecs v. Prefeudal Scots and Vikings v. Anglo-Danish. I think there was an Aztec v. Early Crusaders too.
Last weekend I took some photos:
Our first game was his Aztecs against my North Welsh.

The Aztecs meet the Welsh.

The Welsh with their South Welsh ally.

The South Welsh cavalry got in the way of his archers and the spearmen got flanked; however, the Welsh had been making progress against the important Aztec elements.
Next we played Ptolemy against Lysymachus. The Ptolemaic army was quite different from what I expected. I tried a littoral landing of three auxilia in a line with side edge contact with the waterway. It seemed legal and threw Lysimachus’ plans to meet this treat. I got a narrow victory in this battle.
We then tried Carthaginians against Gauls.

Carthaginians drawn up against Gauls.

Carthaginians with a random stack of skulls next to their camp.

The Carthaginians won in a battle stacked in their favour (though elephants don’t quick kill warband any more). Our final battle was the Carthaginians against Aztecs. I didn’t take any pictures of this. The Carthaginians took only one elephant, I think. They were lucky in a battle between their two 2LH and the Aztecs two 2Ps. I killed both of them, but had I not, my back was to a wood, and I’d have been very much at a disadvantage.

Seleucus v. Lysimachus

Joel got around for the first time this year, and he brought his Lysimachids. I opted for the Seleucids, and decided to take the ‘b’ list as it’s only 2 years out from being a historical opponent to Lysimachus. Indeed, this could be a battle from the final campaign of Seleucus against his old comrade and some-time ally Lysimachus. Seleucus was the aggressor, which was not a good thing (we rolled 3 times before we didn’t get a tie). Lysimachus wisely went for BGo for his Thracians. Seleucus got the edge he wanted, more or less, but it was a crowded field.

Initial deployment; Seleucus faces Lysimachus between two steep hills.

Seleucus' force with the Galatians and psiloi hidden behind a tree.

In the initial moves the Thracians swarmed over the hill on Seleucus’ left flank, while the rest of the army waited. Seleucus eventual decided to attack in the centre, even though he couldn’t really support his left flank. He did this partly to pull off one of the Thracian 3Ax, which would be brought off the BGo into the open. The SCh did this and recoiled the 3Ax into the BGo. In the centre he pushed back the central pike block, giving 5-5 odds to the one on the left, which also pushed back Lysimachus’ other block, but the elephant 3-3 against spear got a stick.

The wily Thessalian then turned the flank of the Seleucid pikes with his companion cavalry. All went to plan. The front rank of pike were recoiled into the rear element which in turn fell to Lysimachus. On the other flank the elephant at 2-4 rolled a 1 and was doubled. Seleucus was now 3 down. However, the SCh won and recoiled the Thracians into their companions.

Seleucus lost his bottle with only one PIP, which he used to send the SCh into Lysimachus. This was evens (we took it as a stick, but of course it was goodbye chariot!).

On the final turn Lysimachus flanked the Seleucid Thorakitai and it was all over (actually, had we realized the SCh was gone, it would have been worse—that combat was another stick!—but Lysimachus would have been free to attack another rear-rank pike element.)

• Review

I had a challenge once Joel got to set terrain, but it was a mistake to attack the way I did. I was wanting to create room for the SCh, but I could have waited and attacked on the right flank, trying to get the Thracians on the hill with the Galatians and a psiloi. However, patience is something I’m yet to learn!

It was great to finally get to see Joel again and see his new Lysimachids, which are not a bad army against other successors, particularly if they can set the terrain, but even otherwise, all those auxilia largely neutralize the elephant and scythed chariot.

I tried a reserve, partly because the terrain made the front so narrow, but the deep base of the SCh was something I’d not quite bargained on!