Gaznavids go to Glasgow......

It’s March so it must be time for Schiltron, George Dick’s traditional Scottish 15mm Fog ancients wargames competition.

This year the defending champion took along top gamer Ian Stewart from down south and aspiring general Robert Taylor from Bradford.

Getting to Glasgow was easy for us traditionalists who use a road map but then panic set in with Ian and Robert when it was discovered that Ian’s sat nav couldn’t get a signal. Relying on old fashioned technology (talking to taxi drivers) we were able to locate our hotel and settle in. McLay’s hotel is ideally situated in the city centre, next to a night club, which means anyone wishing to sleep during the night might wish to avoid this hotel until after 4.30am !

Competitions shouldn’t be too serious so as twice champion I took along a fun army- Gaznavid.  When I last checked the gates of Gazni were in the Taj Mahal !

This 11 century Afghan army is a bit of a pick n mix army, with lots of fun options. Its bursting with elephants which are ideal for taking on mounted opponents or even for just lurking at the back looking threatening. There’s some impact foot who enjoy charging straight ahead- ideally at other foot troops. Add in bow armed light horse and cavalry along with some lancer light horse and cav and you have a force which may not be the perfect competition army but at least can hold its own against most things.

The downside of course is that it’s not a shoot n scoot army nor is it a close your eyes n charge type either. The elephants have to be used cautiously otherwise they tend to trumpet and collapse in front of your eyes at the vital moment. The impact foot are a risk too but either win well or collapse also.

With this army the key to victory is to ensure that if the elephants and foot get into combat then they all arrive at the same time in a nice straight battle line. Unsupported attacks dont tend to succeed. The lancer cav also have to be husbanded carefully to stop then charging off into the distance at exactly the wrong moment!

See the Schiltron pages on rhs for battle reports

Marston Moor order of battle

Order of battle for all 5 armies ( 2 royalist, 2 Parliament and the Scots) are now on the Marston Moor page. Comments welcome. All terrain for the 24x6 table is complete; including 60 linear feet of hedges !!. March will see all the Parliament chaps based and flagged. Flags of War (flagsofwar.com) are providing all flags and I will get photos up of the completed units in the next few weeks. Figure painter now beavering away on the Royalists. Participants in the game this June/July in Scarborough are still very welcome.  see http://www.wartornuk.com/

Marston Moor west side

west end of the table- parliamentary left wing and centre

Marston Moor terrain takes shape

Well the 24x6 ft battlefield is all but complete. I can only fit 12x4 on my table so the pics up here just show the parliamentary right flank and centre. Looks better in real life than pics tho!! More pics on the Marston Moor page.

First time up the Kyber

A first ever foray into Colonial using Sword and the Flame rules with figures painted five years ago but never used before !!. All good fun and the rules seemed straightforward. We just need to learn them. British took a good dusting. Spot the bored Afghan commander yawning before the start of the action. Also note the heroic Punjabi trumpeter who almost won the VC. He was the last man standing, fighting off six afghans including their leader.

Varna  1444

photos are on the Varna page

A 12 foot long table had wooded hills on the Hungarian right and a lake with marshes on the left. The armies were generally based on the ones in reality. Each army had two players a side. Field of Glory 15mm rules were used.

The Ottomans had 37 units including Anatolian allies, lots of various light horse and lots of cavalry together with guns and Janissaries. 5 TCs and an ally TC general.

The Hungarians had 29 units including Wallatian and Polish allys so had 4 TCs and 2 ally generals. They had lots of various light horse and 9 units of various knights !

The fun facet of the game was the sheer size of the enterprise and trying to control events. The lack of generals meant troops could not be controlled or influenced as each side needed. As each army pushed forward gaps in the line appeared as evades and charges took place and units were pulled out of the line as they became demoralised and needed to recover.

Key points in the game were the Hungarian left flank collapsing as their superior light horse were outdone by the Turk’s lights thanks to some Ottoman  light foot emerging from the marshes. In the centre left Hungarian knights pushed forward against continually evading cavalry. The main centre saw the Turk elite cavalry evading from knights only to be caught in the rear by Wallatian cavalry. At the point of victory the Wallatian general was cut from his horse leading to general demoralisation of all the Wallatian troops except the cavalry. As light faded the Ottoman centre was close to collapse especially as their Janissaries were being surrounded by the two Knight units of the Hungarian Royal bodyguard.

On the right the 3 units of Polish knights all faltered becoming demoralised and fragmented following the first release of Ottoman arrows. The beleaguered Polish King spent the entire battle chasing after each unit in order to return them to good health. This was hampered by their continual preference to impetuously charge the Turks despite his requests not to. Miraculously all three units survived a continuous hail of arrows and finished the battle pushing their more numerous Turkish cavalry opponents off the field. The Hungarian far right flank saw a running skirmish over the foothills between numerous light horse and some Turk cavalry with neither side able to create an advantage.   

By the end of the game the Turk centre was beginning to be chased from the field but the Hungarian left flank was in danger of being overrun.

The game was great fun and commanding over 1000 points apiece with a limited number of generals was a real challenge. Disrupted units could not be rallied at will as often the necessary general was otherwise engaged.     

We could have done with another couple of hours to fight to a conclusion so next time will fight such a big game over a day and not squeeze in a smaller game first.

But we found that FoG worked extremely well for playing the game. The only real adjustments next time would probably

·          to specify which specific troops are commanded by which specific general as this would enhance the command and control issue and stop floating generals.

·         To divide each army into 3 or 4 commands; left, centre and right. This would enable each player to have clearly defined troops allocated to him pre battle and facilitate sensible deployment.    

Lots of photos on the varna page

Anyone wanting to join in next time do contact me. The games are held in Robin Hoods Bay near Whitby though !! But new participants always welcome.

paul@navigatorpr.com  

Varna 1444

In a break from the norm, four hardened 15mm FoG competition gamers  (Paul Dawson, Neil Howard and Robert Taylor) took a day out to play a couple of games based around a historical event! Varna 1444 between the Hungarians/Poles and the Ottomans.

The morning featured two singles games based on a pick n mix formula to generate around 900 points a side. The afternoon saw a 2100 points a side refight of Varna 1444 on a 12 foot long table. Lots of photos are on the blog   http://pauljohnstonrhb.blogspot.com/

The pick n mix game saw each army list divided into 16 of slips of paper, each featuring a unit or two totalling around 100 points, and placed in a tub. To create their army each player drew 8 slips from his army’s tub. This resulted in unplanned armies and gave each general a challenge against hard to assess opposition.

Each singles game played on identical pre set terrain- based on second Kosovo 1448. Basically, hills in the Hungarian centre and right flank overlooking a plain.

Game one saw Neil’s Hungarian army of superior light horse and lots of knights face a Turkish army packed full of elite cavalry, cavalry, heavy guns, fortifications, janissaries and light horse. The knights beat the elites but elsewhere ended up in front of the heavy guns and got blown away. The Hungarian flanks caved in too ! Victory to the Turks.

Game two saw my Hungarians with war wagons, armoured foot, lancer light horse, the kings knights and some light horse face down Roberts Turks with mob, Anatolian allies, janissaries, light horse and standard cavalry.

Despite Robert getting the shakes through not being able to choose a competition optimised army, being depleted of Serb allies and his inability to choose terrain placement, he made a decent fist of the game. His Anatolian ally flank march came on early and shot away the Hungarian right wing war wagon flanks, opening up the Hungarian camp. The Hungarian left flank light horse and central knights cut through the Turks leaving the Kings guard and infantry to shore up the right flank. A strategic draw but Robert wants to claim a 11-9 victory !

photo shows one game at top of picture and half of the second at bottom