Thursday 18 April 2019

"Gallic Hopes dashed once again upon Roman Rocks" - the very latest battle of "To the Strongest"


The battle rages at the NWS last night

Wednesday night was a great opportunity to set out my latest re-basing effort against the might of Steve's Polybian Romans in a battle of everyone's favorite ancients rules "To the Strongest" by Simon Miller.

I had been inspired by Simon's enormous efforts to get his massive Gallic army ready for Salute so I thought that a measly 130points should be obtainable within a three week period for myself.

I had acquired a reasonably sized Gallic force over the years and had played the odd game with Warhammer Ancients Battles.  However they had sat in a box for a longtime, occasionally seeing the light of day purely for motivational purposes.

However no more!

They are now re-based on Simon's irregular shaped bases from his store and I think they have come up pretty well.  A few spears and shield to replace and a few more accoutrements on some bases but they are pretty much 99% complete.

So to the game.

The extreme left wing of the Gallic hordes

From the bottom of the photo three deep warbands in one central command

The great Carlo the Terrible, terribles command of four warbands including one of Gaisati

Mad and naked fanatics with edged weapons are never a great combination for civil order

Look at all those Victory Medals in the camp in the background.  You wouldn't possibly believe how
quickly they can disappear!

Steve's central command and what a stunning collection of figures they are.

Spanish flanked by Velites and Hastati - beautifully painted by Big Chris

So the battle was set with 130 points a side.  Far easier for the Gauls than the Riomans I would suggest in terms of allocating units.

Steve has put together these very effective bases for TtS so he does not need to re-base his old figures.
How good are these!

I do like how these lads turned out.

Ready to rumble with those Latin types over yonder plain.

These bases are slightly wider than my normal 12cm and I do like the way it fills the grid square

Lines of Hastati and Principes

Gorgeous command figure on the Roman right flank


An eagle eye view of the Gallic cavalry commander

Following excellent early chit drawing the Gauls rushed forward to try and prevent the Romans anchoring on rough terrain

Early Cretan bow fire made their mark

The Gaisati, armed to the teeth, take the rough ground and inflict early damage on the Scutarii

Typical Steve manages to withdrawal without a problem...bastard!

Despite mighty fighting across the line the exchange of ranks proves most effective as one of the central warbands is easily disposed of.

On the Gallic left very early success in causing damage has not translated to destroyed Roman units

A very sticky situation for the great Carlo the Terrible,terrible. 

By some miracle the Gaisati mange to turn but its all too late...


So the battle raged on...and then it was over.

The Romans were steadfast and effective in their maneuver, line exchanges and ability to pass the critical saves whilst the Gauls were...well...Gauls!

Once again a fantastic and fun game with a great collection of figures and even better like-minded friend and gamer.  Great fun indeed.

28 comments:

  1. An impressive game! :) Such reports make me rush to finish my armies to finally start playing. Thank You!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you L - always love to hear about games I play in helping with other gamers mojo. I am exactly the same and love seeing fantastic, inspiration blogs on the web.

      Delete
  2. Stunning pictures! I think that re-basing was well-worthwhile. :-) I love the Polybian bases, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much Simon and will certainly pass on your compliments to Steve.

      Delete
  3. Beauty! Wonderful battle, Carlo!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Sergey - wonderful battle to play in.

      Delete
  4. Great looking battle with favorite rules. The Gauls need to get some luck in their initial charge to have a decent chance of beating the Romans!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Peter and you are absolutely correct. They need to hit hard and early across the line or the Romans superior manoeuvre and saves will get you in the end.

      Delete
  5. Two splendid looking armies! Your rebased Gauls are superb. Enjoyable BatRep too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Again a great looking game Carlo and the figures in both collection are beautiful.

    Regards

    Nathan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Nathan - greatly appreciated mate. We are certainly enjoying the hobby.

      Delete
  7. Poor Gauls, never seem to catch a break. 😀

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes Stew - sometimes the Gauls can be a bit of a speed bump in some games, especially as we generally always play only historical matchups. Another one of my armies is very similar - Later Achaemenid Persian anyone. Very pretty but ...

      Delete
  8. Lovely bit of rebasing! Your Gauls look great,pity the battle didn't go your way but at least the Romans were good looking too!
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Iain for your kind words on the balding and the look of the game. The great thing about playing good friends in wargaming ng as you well know from your own hobby experiences, is always that the result is never the key , it’s always having great fun.

      Delete
  9. Great report and excellent photos of beautifully painted miniatures! TtS seems to be everyone's favourite rule set at the moment - my own Friday night crew tend to use these rules most frequently - some odd outcomes occasionally but usually lots of fun and you actually get a result! I can imagine most of your Gauls were Lights and thus disappeared at a rate of knots, quickly depleting the store of coins...seen it all before!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes RR - swept away like a sand castle on the tide after just a teasing look of stability and possibility! They are lots of fun to play with.

      Delete
  10. I've never done Ancients. But when the Brits are finished...…………….. Did you get my message regards the Nap status markers you produced many moons ago?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Ged - no mate. Try Messaging me again.

      Delete
  11. gosh! - what a lovely sight of painted miniatures and flocking of bases too! excellent games report!
    Thanks for sharing.....cheers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Phil. Your lovely comments are greatly appreciated and heartily received.Makes all that sand on my floor upstairs for basing worthwhile...bloody sand;^)

      Delete
  12. Beautiful looking figures and a most impressive game Carlo.
    Classical Greek to early Imperial Roman is the best of ancients to my mind. There are plenty, plenty of nations, armies and units to choose from too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much James for your kind comments. Yes they do look best in taht period in my humble opinion.

      Delete
  13. Drat that dastardly evil empire - the Romans. Of course the Gauls should never leave home without Asterix, Obelix & co! 8O)

    But if you are going to go down, then going down in style in a very photogenic manner is the way to go. Mission accomplished.

    Salute
    von Peter himself

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your kind comments as always Peter. I do actually have those figures awaiting painting you know - completely forgot about them. Now that could be a bit of fun at the head of an advancing warband! Hope you are well mate and the Napoleonic's are still keeping you busy!

      Delete
  14. hi Carlo, figures and basing are great, and show the potential for diorama units for all area based games.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Absolutely HA. The larger bases provide a wonderful amount of space which can certainly help with the positioning and interaction of the figures. Thanks for your kind comments.

      Delete