Lost Battles: Magnesia 190BC

Rome began with Eumenes who forced the withdrawal of the Scythed Chariots, no one else suffered from this flight from the field but the continued combats wore down the levy light infantry. The Roman veteran cavalry swiftly dispatched the Galatian levy horse on the Seleucid left, this caused the yet to be bloodied levy heavy infantry on the Seleucid left to withdraw. Fighting in the centre was inconclusive while the Seleucid levy skirmishers on the right became spent. 

The Seleucids countered, somewhat on the back foot, the Roman advance had pressed the Seleucid in the rear of the battlefield so they needed to push the Romans back. They started in the centre the Seleucid Light Infantry pressed the velites back being able to retreat behind the legions they avoided a second hit. The Seleucid phalangites used their depth to push the Roman legions, there were two successful attacks one had to all out attack by becoming spent, hoping that the greater numbers of Seleucids would pressure the Romans with less troops, causing veteran legionaries to become spent. The second was also an all out attack but this time the phalangites in their effort expended two veteran legionaries as well as themselves. The Seleucid left after seeming quite brittle pushed back hard, Eumenes guard (who forgot to rally) took a hit along with the Roman allied cavalry and the veteran Cretan archers.

The Romans after taking some hits knew they had to press their advantage, having control of most of the battlefield was dampening the spirits of the Seleucid troops just as much as the damp conditions were dampening bow strings. Roman velites pushed themselves almost to breaking point to shatter the Seleucid levy skirmishers. Another Seleucid skirmisher swarm was shattered, the resultant morale of the Seleucids saw a levy heavy infantry rout and the withdrawal of an average heavy cavalry and the levy cataphracts. The flight inspired the withdrawal of last light levy troops in the centre.

While the cavalry on the left withdrew to fight another day, the remaining troops felt the pressure, they had to start breaking Roman troops before the Roman right regrouped to attack their flank. The elephants pressed some veteran legionaries inflicting a hit as Antiochus finally got into the fight his Agema wrecked havoc on the Roman lines with allied legionares and veterans becoming spent. The cataphracts followed in the carnage and in their attempt to emulate the kings guard exerted themselves inflicting damage on two veteran legions.

The Romans used to dealing with elephants and inflicted a double hit the levy phalangites taking the brunt of the elephants wrath. A following veteran legion finished off the elephants and the levy pikes routed from the field. Antiochus himself was under threat the Agema received a hit but the king rallied his men.

The king knew this was his last chance, after his men rallied they once again undertook a thunderous charge destroying veteran legionaries and the Velities sheltering behind them. Roman morale held despite the looming threat of light cavalry to their rear who appeared after skirting along by the river. The Silvershields brought their strength to bear shattering average and veteran legionaries, this caused the remaining veteran legionaries to rout as well at the velites in the centre. The light cavalry now headed to threaten the Roman centre but the phalanxes did not make any headway.

By now the victoriuos roman right was geared to strike the flank of the phalanx and after the final phalanx became spent a unit of pikes were shattered causing the rout of the remaining two and the levy light cavalry quietly withdrew, the victorious Roman right now swept towards the Seleucid camp, the Roman centre now thier opposing troops dissipated, turned to finish the Silvershields with another shattered phalanx and another two routing units after a attack from their left flank. Antiochus could only withdraw, the cataphracts routed following the kings decision and Antiochus he hoped to rally his army to fight again, and that the Romans were bloodied enough to slow their advance into Asia Minor!       

Rome 

Shattered: 1 x ALE, 2 x VLE, 1 x ALI  

Rout: 1 x VLE, 1 x ALI 

Spent: 3 x VLE, 1 x AHC, 1 x VHC, 1 x VLI                                      
74 Seleucid VP (94 with handicap)

Seleucids 
Shattered: 1 x LHC, 2 x LLI. 1 x IEL, 2 x APH

Rout: 1 x LHI, 1 x LPH, 4 x APH, 2 x ACA

Withdrawn: 1 x SCH, 1 x LHI, 1 x AHC, 1 x LCA, AL + VHC
109 Roman VP

Clear Roman victory (Narrow victory with handicap)

Very Bad Day in Cisalpine Gaul

I made a couple of army lists for Strength and Honour, based loosely on the Battle of Trebia. I also wanted both armies to have a chance at winning so I used the points system to buy roughly equal amounts of troops. Also based on my Lost Battle refights of Trebia I wanted the Roman infantry to outclass the Punic while the Punic Cavalry would outclass the Romans. By the time I added the Generals the points cost was skewed towards the Carthaginians who ended up with 6 generalship points to Rome's 1.    

Both Armies advanced, the Carthaginian Infantry did so expecting to be pushed back, hoping the advance would give them space to fall back, they just needed to hold on enough for the cavalry to encircle to Roman lines. The legions advanced steadily confident in their superior combat abilities the cavalry just had to hold long enough to break the Punic lines. 

The cavalry wings advanced both Roman wings were out classed and the Roman left wing was set to be overwhelmed by flanking Numidians. However the Equites despite overwhelming odds and losing most combats held their nerve and kept in the fight even successfully defending against a Crunch. Mago had to use his generalship point to avoid losing an attack combat despite having the advantage. This prevented the Numidians from getting around the flanks, the Equites falling back frustrated the efforts of the flanking force. On the other flank the Gallic cavalry pushed back the Roman horse although it wasn't all plain sailing, a Grind result frustrated the Punic momentum on the flanks. Eventually the Romans were disordered and began to retire they were on the brink of being destroyed!

As the cavalry wings of the Romans were being pushed back towards their rear, the legions marched fourth Sempronious' emphasis on attack proved to be the true Roman way. Attack after attack went Romes way, the Carthaginians burned through Defence points in rerolling terrible Discipline rolls. The Romans called a Homunculous Est! Hannibal used a generalship point to remove a card before the reveal. Despite this the Carthaginian army became fatigued and that would make the results of bad rolls worse. Eventually the terrible Discipline rolls with no options for rerolls lead the various infantry units to become disordered units began to retire, and another Homuculous Est! was called but Hannibal burned a Generalship Point to cancel it, merely delaying the inevitable. After another round of combats Punic infantry contingents went from retiring to routing with 3 units routing 1 retiring and another disordered Sempronius' victory was complete and it was a victory worthy of a triumph! A whopping 42 for the Carthaginians after so many disasters and the Romans save for a crumbling but hobbling on right flank and 6 legions losing their velites were still only sat on 13 break points.

With Hannibal a fugitive in Cisalpine Gaul would it be a matter of time before a Gallic tribe hand him over to Sempronius for leniency. Those that were waiting to see what happed after the battle would undoubtedly stop sharpening their spears and send gifts of thanks for repelling the invader from Cisalpine Gaul.     

Thorakitai Advance

In the dark days before discovering Newline (a long time ago now) I was hunting for thureophoroi, I grabbed a few Hat Thracians that had suitable figures and to get them in strength would leave lots of spares, I needed to secure a source of dedicated thureophoroi. I got hold of some Xyston thureophoroi, sold as 15mm they seemed about 18mm, I contemplated using some creative basing to incorporate them or to simply change to a more common scale of ancients as I  really liked the Xyston miniatures. I then came across the Newline with their comprehensive selection and would be a closer match to the plastics I already had so the Xyston's ended up in a drawer.

What I loved about Xyston's figures was the helmets which were interesting and varied, I thought the size of their heads were roughly the same as Newlines so I thought while I was doing head swap conversions I could create a unique unit of Thorakitai using the Xyston heads and the Newline Designs 20mm African Veterans advancing. I missed the faces on the Newline figures but those heads were used on the Cretan Archers and now I have spares for future conversion ideas. The command figures remained unchanged.

I experimented a bit with the painting, I dry/over brushed the helmets with Vallejo Silver and used Agoras Dunes Contrast paint to give them a bronze tinge this was also applied to the greaves. Its an effective way todo metallics and something to consider for future projects. I also applied Contrasts to the shields again more of an experiment but I'm pleased with their turn out.

I got the railway background out to do some photos so I redid the last thorakitai conversions and attached below. I also got some pictures of  the Moria Goblins finally so that will be a post at some point. I've also had a bit of solo gaming in so once written up there will be some posts on Strength & Honour, Dominion of the Spear and Lost Battles. On the miniatures front I'm preparing some Celtiberians for now but time at the desk is very sporadic and progress slow. I could also pick up some plastic sets that are part built but I'm into ancients currently. I'm wanting to pursue Punic wars campaign so expanding armies for that is a goal as well as expanding armies for Hellenistic states namely Ptolemiac troops for Raphia.     

African Armoured Spearmen

These 20mm African veterans standing from Newline Designs were painted at the same time as the last post featuring the converted versions of these. These are tweaked slightly in that the spears have been cut away and replaced by bristle spears and this also allowed a small variation in the positions of the spears. The paint scheme was pretty straightforward and the shields have custom decals on with the command shields having had theirs painted over.

I've made good progress on the next batch of converted Newlines next being Africans advancing with spears but they now have various Hellenistic heads from Xyston. After that it's back to choosing the next batch to prep (Celtiberians and Italians maybe but could do with expanding Hellenistic pike blocks). I veering towards the Punic War theme as I've been making progress on a 2nd Punic war campaign setting to play out Strength & Honour battles. Other than that I can pick up one of the 28mm plastic sets that need assembled!

 

Thorakitai

 

I'm pleased to get this unit done representing Thorakitai, armoured Thureophoroi essentially, they were a labour love being a head swap conversions. Note if there were to be a dedicated set of 20mm Thorakitai made I would still certainly get them! The Command is the standard Macedonian command figures from Newline Designs 20mm Macedonian range, they just have shields from the Maccabean range. The rank and file troops are the African Veterans standing from the Carthaginian line. I snipped off the metal spears and drilled out the hands, filed the parts that the spear connected to on the tunics to add a replacement bristle spear. This allowed a small bit of variety as the spears can be held at slightly different angles and more bend resistant. The main conversion was the head swap. The heads were procured from the Greek range from mainly the old style Thureophoroi sculpts with clean shaven faces (I believe they have been re-sculpted with beards going off later purchases) also some heads from the newer Hellenistic infantry code. The heads were placed in various positions to give natural variation.

It was a tedious task but I was pleased with the conversion, they didn't have the smoothest joins but I tried to make out they were the sort of scarves ancient warriors might use to protect their necks from armour rubbing against it. Again the shields are the ones from the Maccabean line. I went for a blue theme with the unit and spent a bit more time highlighting the tunics.

I'll post up the African veterans soon, I've been distracted this week working again on a campaign setting for the 2nd Punic War. As with other campaign rules and rules is general they begin to get more complex so I'm trying to keep them as simple as possible with some flavour. I've settled on Strength & Honour for tactical settings and I have a map made so I'm working on getting it functioning but there's still lots of decisions to make with army lists and victory points.