Sunday, July 22, 2007

Celts in Turkey; 800bc?

Well, as promised, here is a review of my defeat at the Harrogate club, using Warhammer Ancients!

The opposing forces were my Celtic 'Barbarians' against Pat's Hittites; therefore a largely unhistorical match up, but the closest we could get in 20mm with the forces we have. My Celts have been on here many times but for the purposes of showing my force here they are again:
I deployed two blocks of 48 infantry, two of 27, a block of fanatics numbering 28, some skirmishers, 14 light horse and 5 chariots.

Pat fielded two units of 35 spear men, a unit of 28 mercenary sea peoples, rather more skirmishers, and three units of five chariots - the elite arm of his force. The figures are largely Caesar and were painted using an ink wash base. They were very nice, though I remain unconvinced by movement trays...

The opening moves saw the Celts swarm forward, whilst Hittite chariots covered the flanks. From the first turn Pat was afraid of the sheer size of my units! The terrain ended up blocking the centre of the battlefield, so far as I was concerned that was to my advantage...

A close up of Pat's centre:Early on it was all looking good for the Celts, armed with javelins we easily could out shoot the Hittites at the range we were operating. Pat was putting all his efforts in to destroying my cavalry so he could out flank me.
As it was the chariots on his right did chase off my cavalry, but not with the resultant advantage he may have hoped for. On his left it was a disaster, as the least enthusiastic melee ever saw his chariots rout straight off the table side when he misjudged the ability of my faster chariots to charge him.

Then the usual disaster befell me, slowly I'm learning how to win, or how NOT to lose at Warhammer, and high on the list of "Don't's" should be "Don't throw your army General into a melee at the start of the game." I did, he got killed, the bulk of my army started running.

Surprisingly it took another hour or more for Pat to seal the deal. A sprinkling of my troops stood, and I was still able to beat a few of his prize units, but with my forces hemorrhaging from the field it was only a matter of time. My fanatics could not arrive in time to save my last large unit from a 3 on 1 assault, so I conceded the victory to Pat.

Compared to other recent forays, I did more right here than usual, I was suitably aggressive with an attackers army. I covered my flanks and held a reserve. But throwing my general in at the first was just too risky a manoeuvre. As ever I couldn't have made a morale test of '12' on two D6 on the night, whilst the Hittites rolled on average a '4' for all of theirs (though to be fair the way he rolled armour saves, it was apparent the Hittite regulation kit that day was a paper bulls eye for every man).

Elsewhere there was plenty going on in the club, again; but my photo skills were not good this night, so the only reasonable photo, is of one of my next opponent's armies. Some Ancient Chinese of some sort or other:

Well, it was a fun evening. My next trip to Harrogate is in a month, for what looks like being a rare old slogging match. My Vampire Counts versus a Tomb Kings army. Two forces of undead? I don't expect it'll be a quick game...

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