Last Tactica game for this campaign season.

Hail to all who read this report!
This will be the last Tactica game for a while as poor campaign weather is moving in (Mike's basement is too cold in the winter for gaming and he declines to send his troops to foreign lands). We will still report on other battles from other eras as they occur. Next week I should have a report on a WW1 air game from the skys of Bill's house.

The game we played Saturday was Carthage vs Rome. This has to be one of my favorite anchient face offs. As you may or may not know, in Tactica to defeat you enemy you need to destroy half of his main battleline units. The Carthaginians had 12 main units of heavy infantry. In addition there were 2 units of medium Spanish infantry, 2 units of elephants, 4 units of heavy cavalry, 4 units of light cavalry and 6 units of light infantry. Facing them were the Romans with 16 main units of heavy infantry (smaller in size to the Carthaginians), 4 units of heavy cavalry, 4 units of light cavalry and 7 units of light infantry. In reality the forces were fairly even.

Each side started by deploying their forces as their commanders saw fit. The commanders were as follows:
Carthage - Bill - Supreme Commander and had the Left wing.
                 Wendel - Commander of the Right wing.
                 Jamie - Commander of the center
Rome - Greg (myself) - Supreme Commander and had the center.
             Mike - Commander of the Right wing.
             Ken - Commander of the Left wing.

Thre Roman plan was to hold each flank and drive through the Carthaginian center, turning either left or right to roll up their battleline. The Carthaginian plan was to hold back their center to draw in the Romans while trying to defeat one flank or the other and then roll up the Romans battleline. Carthage used their light troops to support their cavalry while Rome used theirs to inflict casualties from a distance and to act as blocking and delaying forces to hold up the Carthaginian cavalry attacks.

The game started with a general advance by the Romans who wanted to close as soon as possible.

Note the Romans shifting troops to their right to try to take advantage of the thin line of Carthaginians on that side.
Rome was advancing acros the field and eager to get to grips with their enemy as soon as possible. At the same time, Carthage moved up some of their medium infantry to support their cavalry attacks on their right flank.

Roman advance on the Carthaginian left flank.

Once the flanks were engaged, great fights were fought and deeds were done that will be told in barracks around the world for generations to come! Light troops were driven under the hooves of the Carthaginian cavalry but the Roman cavalry, supplied by their allies were more than true to their word today. Seeing only glory and gold in sight they fought tremendous odds and held fast! Mike rolled no less that 4 moral saves for his cavalry needing a 10,11 or 12 each time on two 6 sided dice! The power of Rome was evident today.

Eventually the flank attacks ground down as fewer and fewer troops were left to fight.

On the Roman left flank Ken was dishing our more of the same and first stopping the Carthaginian cavalry in its tracks and then slowly forcing them back. This was no mean feat as Wendel on the Carthaginian right is one of the best cavalry commanders in our games. But today he was cramped into the corner as the troops were too numerous for the field of battle.

This caused the Carthaginian commander to ammend his plan and ordered an advance by the Carthaginian heavy infantry.

Now the heavy fighting was in the Roman right center and a victory here would allow the Romans to roll up the Carthaginians and win the day. The Carthginian's allied Spanish troops were eliminated and the elephants were prevented from breaking through to create havoc behind our lines. But what is this? The Carthaginians heavy infantry, well rested and fresh to the fight started destroying the Warriors of Rome causing gaps to form in thier line.

All across the front Roam units were leaving the field in the face of a determined Carthaginian advance. All the damage caused by Jamie's well lead Spanish medium infantry and the feared elephants was starting to tell as unit after unit disintigrated. No brave stands as the Roman allies had preformed, just shame and disaster. The battle was lost and again the Gods have forsaken me!
Well better luck next time. Maybe next week I will keep from getting shot up as a WW1 pilot.

As always I ave some eye candy from Mike;s great colection.

These are Gripping Beast figures with Aventine chariots in the back ground.

Here is shot of the back. Note the detail work on the capes.

These are the Aventine chariots from the front. Great figures!!!

Another great figure from Aventine.

So there we have it my friends. Another defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. Will this never end!
Coming soon as I mentioned, the WW1 air game from Bill's house and we will be having a Flames of Ear game at my place in November. The British vs the Italians early in the campaign in North Africa. This time I will have a secret weapon, both of my sons will be playing and I certainly can not let them down. besides, their die rolling abilities are legendary in our gaming world.
Good gaming!
Greg

 

Another great game at Mike's

A hearty Hail Caesar to all. Here are a few pictures from our game at Mike's yesterday. Rome vs Phyrus.
Sorry to say that my Tactica mojo is very rusty and I lost as one of the Roman commanders (this is twice in a row! May the Gods forgive me.).

This is a shot of the enemy's right flank. Note all of those nasty rows of pike.

Here is a closeup of the Greek heavy and light cavalry.

These are some of the Romans Italian allied forces.

One of Mike's many many Roman cohorts.

Our Italian allies advance on our right flank. We were hoping to break one flank or the other and then sweep the board. But this was not to be. The Greeks forces (Wendel and Phil) held their flanks and broke the Roman center.

A picture of our left flank during the second move.

A closeup of some of the elephants we were trying to deal with. Our light infantry was massed and used to break up the elephants attacks.

Mikes new Italian allied chariots and the allied command.

One of Mikes Italian allied units. And yes, every shield pattern is hand painted.

A staged picture of the Italian allied cavalry.

One of the many pike units we encountered. Again all shields are hand painted.

Finally a shot of our Roamns trying to fend off the attack of all those pikes! Our thin white line.
Thanks to all who participated and especialy to Mike for hosting the game and letting us play with his fantastic figures. Maybee next time I will sacrafice a goat instead of a chicken.

A surprise ending

Hello to all who partake of our gaming adventures.
We had another Tactica game at Mike's house yesterday and boy oh boy we did not expect it to play out the way it did.
We were gaming a very early Roman battle that involved barbarians from the Alimani area vs very early Romans when they still used the Greek pike formations. Historically this battle took place near Rome by a large stream and the Romans got their clocks cleaned. Our game had a slightly different ending.
The players were:
Mike, the Roman commander and our host.
Larry, The Roman second in command.
Greg (myself), the Barbarian commander.
Bill, the Barbarian second in command.
And please forgive me but we had a third Barbarian commander who's name I find that I can not remember. This in no way detracts from the fact that he was a great gamer and a good sport.

Here is how the game started with the Romans set up with a strong defensive plan and the Barbarians ready to strike.

The Barbarian plan was to sweep the Roman left flank and roll up their line to the right while the rest of the Barbarians held their attention.
The flank attack was going very well.

But then the Romans decided to get aggressive and smashed into the Barbarian center.

This caused the destruction of two important war bands for the Barbarians and broke open the center of the line for the Romans to advance.

The Romans had snatched certain victory away from the Barbarians by marching most of their heavy infantry off the board into the Barbarian baggage camp and away from the destructive attack of the Barbarian war bands. THE GAME WAS A DRAW! In all of our years (22 of them) playing Tactica we have never had a draw. Mike had played a very good game and I fear that our over confidence may have caused us to see the victory slip from our grasp.
As always, everyone had a very good time and especially enjoyed getting together. Sadly though Mikes energy was directed at salvaging his army and not used for his expansive knowledge of ethnic humor.

Again I have added some eye candy of Mikes figures.

Thanks again Mike. Until we game again.
Greg

Flames of War game at my house.

Hi to all!
Well we had a fantastic Flames of War game at my house Saturday morning. Five players participated and I hope that all had a great time, I know I did. The game was Russians vs Germans and represented an attack by a German armoured company attempting to take a Russian rail head early in the Barbarossa campaign of 1941.
The Russians were played by Bill (Joseph's distant relative) and Mike (our ethnic adviser).
The Germans were played by Greg (myself) Wendel (a great cavalry tactician) and Jamie (hopefully a new addition to our gaming group).

Jamie had the German left flank, Wendel had the German right flank and I managed the center.The Germans were to have the first move and fire and in taking advantage of this, they managed to take out almost every Russian heavy (KV-1's and KV-2's) and medium (T-34's) tank in the game! Those vehicles that were not destroyed were bailed out. What a fantastic opening. Now we thought all we need to do is advance into the rail head (a very built up area with many houses), push out the defending infantry with our armour and win the game.

Well the Russians had other plans. They delayed our right flank advance by the gallant sacrifice of an entire armoured car platoon (about 8 vehicles). Then they delayed our left flanks advance by the sacrifice of an entire light tank platoon (again about 7-8 vehicles). Such bravery. In the mean time those lucky Soviets were able to get some air support and evade our fighter cover. By utilizing their air and artillery(handled very nicely by Mike), the Russians were able to take out most of our anti tank guns and delay our Panzer Grenadiers moving in to the rail head from our right center.

Now time was running out for the Germans as they had to take the rail head before more of those damn Russians arrived to stop them. It was also getting late in our day and some of the players were forced to withdraw to fulfill other commitments. This left Bill and I to finish up the game. Left without the best generals on my side, I was able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!!! We had to call the game a Russian victory as the Germans could not take their objective within the prescribed number of turns. Good work to the Russians!

So now in my recent gaming, I am 0 for 4. This is a dismal record for me. And I will be up nights trying to devise a way to win the next battle I will face. This looks to be an Aerodrome game at Bill;s house so I will report on that one also.

Below I have added some pictures from out game.

The rail head as seen from the German left flank.

More of the same.

Burning Russian armour on their right flank.

Another shot of the Russian right flank.

A view of most of the table from the Russian right flank.

Part of the rail head with the staunch Russian defenders.

The advance of the German Panzer Grenadiers and Scout platoon.

Another perspective on the rail head.
And now just for some eye candy from Bill's fine collection.

Notice the hand made ammo boxes and shell casings. Just fantastic!!
Take care to all.
Greg

Some older pictures

Hi all,
Just posting a few pictures of some of my Flames of War Finnish armour.
I hope that you enjoy.
Greg

Tactica game at Mike's

Hi all,
We recently had a Tactica game at Mike's house. Rome vs Gauls. As you can see from the pictures, we had a fairly traditional setup and very little terrain to get in the way.

After a little rearangement of the Gauls, I placed all of the cavalry on the left, we were ready to begin.

The Gauls plan was to sweep the Roman right flank with their cavalry and then roll up the Roman battle line while pinning the Legion with frontal attacks by the infantry. The next picture shows how the plan was developing and all seemed to be going as expected with the exception of a very aggressive Roman commander who wanted to close with the Gallic infantry as fast as he could.

The Galic cavalry was first met by the Roman light infantry and surprisingly we were set on our heals by some mighty fantastic die rolling by Mike. Well this was shocking as Mike has not had good dice or good omens from the Gods for over 15 years now!
As we continued the Gauls decided to weather the storm and keep to the plan. Unfortunately the storm got worse. After three turns of continuous combat the Galic cavalry broke and went streaming to the rear!!! At the same time the Roamn Legion had closed with the barbarian infantry and was making short work of them. Again with some great die rolls by the infantry commander Larry.
Well by now their fate was sealed and the Galic commanders, Phil and I, threw in the towel.
A very good game by Mike and thanks to all who played, Larry, Phil and of course the victorious Mikus Likus.
Here are soem pictures of Mikes armies. They are super nice and always a pleasure to game with as well as their owner who is a most gracious host.

Some Spanish cavalry.

One of Mikes Roman Cohorts.

A couple of Mikes many warbands.

Take care and good gaming to all.
Greg

Change in plan

Hi all,
I have had a change in plan. Instead of starting with the ancient campaign of many years ago, I will report on our most recent game of Flames of War.
This game was between the Finns and Russians at the beginning of the Continuation War the winter after Germany invaded Russia. It was played by myself and two other members of our small group of gamers. William the Communist (he played the Russians of course) and Wendell ( a fabulous cavalry man). Wendell and I were the Finns.
The Finns were defending a frozen river crossing and the road beyond while the Russians were attempting to break the Finnish defences and pour into the heart of Finland. The weather was clear but the terrain was heavy snow. The river was cross able at all points and there were three sections of light woods with a small Farmstead near the river crossing on the Russian side.
The Finns started in prepared positions and with a hidden deployment of our own device. This was to reflect the poor intelligence provided the Russian commander. The Finns also had reserves to bring on the table. The timing of the arrival was left to die rolls but what came in and where was left to the Finnish commander to decide. We used Flames of War rules played with 15mm figures from Battlefront, Old Glory and Gaming Models on a 5'X10' table. Total number of turns was seven and there were three objectives on the table. To win the Russians had to take ant two objectives and hold them at the beginning of their turn. Any other result was a Finnish victory. The Finns had about 2900 points and the Russians about 3600 points involved in the game. I will provide specific units for each side at your request.
As with all of our games we started off the gathering at the designated time and after appropriate greetings and exchange of jovial and witty words we got down to setting up the game and talking politics and history. I will not bore you with the politics as they are never a suggest that can bring any two people into total accord but will continue on to the more important task of reporting on the game.
The Finns were already set up saving much time as the Russians were only able to see two of the Finnish units at the start plus a number of markers on the table that were to indicate the possibility of other Finnish units. Played along the wide side of the table, the Finns had a light woods on their left flank with a road running off the table through it (the entry to this woods on the road was one objective), An open area in the center to the frozen river and then another light woods on their right flank that went to the table edge.

Deployed on the table for the Finns were an infantry platoon mixed with a heavy machine gun platoon in the entrenchments. Russians wet up within 18" of their table edge and from side to side of the board. The Russians placed their armor closest to their front and from the center of the table extending to their right. In the left half of their front they placed two armor car platoons and a motorized infantry company. To the right of the armor was a scout platoon and infantry platoon supported by an infantry company to their rear. Support for their attack came from a heavy mortar battery placed in the farm compound, Katusha rocket battery behind the farm compound and priority air support. Sadly for the Russians they failed to bring any heavy artillery.

Turn 1:
The Russians started by advancing all units as far as the snow would let them. Unfortunately this prevented them from shooting this turn. The Finns unable to pass up an opportunity, placed their field guns on the table thus revealing their position to the Russians which was behind their entrenchments. Both Russians and Finns received air support this turn. So after some minor shooting and very light casualties, Turn one ended.

Turn 2:
The Russians continue their advance and receive air support again for this turn. They use this air power to attack the Finnish heavy guns. To defend against this attack the Finns put out their light AA Battery and completely destroy the attacking planes. Again this turn light casualties.

Turn 3:
This turn the Russians slow down their advance and try to shoot up as many Finns as possible. Air support, mortars and rockets pour into the Finnish positions but without the devastating effect they anticipated. The Finns however continue to chip away at the Russian advance using their artillery and now this turn exposing a mortar platoon the was dug in near a swampy area on their right flank. The bombardment of the mortars stops the motorized infantry cold. Air and heavy artillery chip away at the rocket launchers and Russian mortars. At this point everyone is still in the fight and eager for more but the Finns are having trouble bringing up their reserves( poor die rolls).

Turn 4:
More blazing away at each other. The Russians are most fortunate as their air force has not let them down yet! The Finns reveal a pair of anti tank guns near the left flank of the Russian armor. The Russians are methodically destroying the Finnish heavy artillery while pressing toward the Finns main line of defence. The Finns anti tank guns do their best to stop the Russian armor and the mortar platoon begins to take apart the motorized infantry platoon. A Finnish Pioneer platoon attempts to stop the Russian armor by assaulting the 1st platoon of T-34's. Bravely they charge into the fight only to be cut to ribbons by the machine guns of their foes.

Turn 5 & 6:
At this point the Russians are wearing thin. They continue to wear down the Finns but have taken too many losses while doing this.The Finns had hoped that their assaulting of the armour would cause the Russians to break but their hopes were dashed against Soviet steel. Finally though the Finnish reserves appear. They consist of a pltn of BT-42's, a platoon of T-28's and a platoon of KV-1's. The firepower they provide will prove to stem the Red Tide by crippling the Soviet armor and finishing off the Russian mortars. The Finnish mortar team eliminates the motorized infantry while Finnish armored cars eliminate their Russian counterparts.

At this point we called the game as the game was to last 7 turns and in their last turn the Russians could not reach any of the other objectives. We declared a Finnish victory!
As always there was more enjoyment in our gathering together than in winning a game. Everyone enjoyed themselves but Wendell was most impressive with spectacular die rolling this day.