Tuesday, 26 March 2019

ADLG in Pamplona!

The CLWC descended upon Pamplona this weekend for an ADLG competition.

The theme, "army must contain a minimum of two cataphracts"

Interesting choice, not a period I've ever tried, so, I brought my Chinese army, using the Southern and Northern Dynasties. 

The Europeans generally use a two list competition, so, one list an impact mounted version, the other a medium foot with an Elephant.

The Runners & Riders, some very scary opponents


The result, I got 4th!  I managed four wins, a mutal destruction and Jean-yves in the final round absolutely spanked me.  Very impressed to get 4th place.



Before the comp, we took a side trip to San Sebastian for some sun, wine and pinxtos (Basque for tapas)







I didn't take many photos of the games as I was too busy in the games.

Game 1 vs Juan Carlos's Sassanid Persians.

Yes, that was a 3 wide elite Elephant with two elite impact swordsman death star.

I found the best way to deal with the death star, flank both armies and forced the Elephants to split up.

 Game 2 vs Eduardo's Patrician Romans.  

One all mightly centre of 8 legionaires, supported by elite auxilia and two medium artillery.

Luckily, the flanks were pretty week so we went thru them first with my impact mounted


Game 3 vs Carlos's Kyro Koreans
A mutual destruction!




Game 6 the final round
Civil war vs Jean-yves










Wednesday, 20 March 2019

ADLG-R AAR English Parliamentarian vs Early 30 Years War Swedish

The ADLG-R rules are starting to stabilise and we've had lots of practice games with it now.

Andy brought his English Parliamentarian vs my Early 3o Years War Swedish.

We didn't realise till the end of the game that Andy had been working off an older version of the rules and had brought 250 points to my 230 points, which explained his army size of 28!

The Swedes won the initiative and invaded England.

The English tried to cover the table in bad terrain but most of it fell on the Swedish side.  One positive for the Swedes was a gentle hill just in the right place for an artillery unit.

The English lined up with their pike & shot in the center and both flanks with average horse armed with pistol.  For rear support, some mediocre pike & shot or cav with carbine.

The Swedes went for the classic line up of the Salvo Pike & Shot in the centre and on the left hand flank Elite Heavy Cav with Pistol, plus a dragoon and a Reiter with a command shot.

The third command was on a flank march, much to Andy's horror.

The result?  Mutual Destruction, the Swedes loosing 23 of 23, the English loosing 28 of 28.

Turn 1, Deployment




Turn 2
The Swedish flank march still hasn't arrived, rolling a 1 in turn 1 & 2. 

The Swedes begin to advance under artillery fire in the centre and on the left, break out from the rough terrain and threaten the English flank.

The English move their left hand cavalry wing to protect what they hope will be the flank march and advance their right flank of mounted to counter the Swedish mounted.

Turn 3

The Swedish foot's advance slows down while they take time to recover cohesion due to the artillery fire.

The English mounted use the delayed flank march as an excuse to break off one mounted to go sack the camp or charge the artillery unit on the hill.


On the left flank, the Swedish mounted charge the English, hoping to break thru and then get into the flanks of the foot.

The initial charge doesn't cause a break thru but the English flank is in trouble.

The Swedish Reiters with Dragoon support fire at the English Dragoon.

Turn 4

The Swedish flank march still hasn't arrived, they must have gone the long way, via a bar, Denmark, thru Belgium, up thru France and then delayed by Southern Rail.








The mounted melee in the flank continues with the Swedes loosing all the combats

 

 Turn 5

The Swedish flank march finally rolls a 6 and will be arriving next turn on the right hand flank.

In the center, the Swedish foot line up ready for a charge, they still take heavy fire from the English foot and artillery, but the rear support starts taking effect.



 Turn 6

The Swedish foot charge the English, breaking one foot unit in a turn with a series of 6-1s.


Turn 7 & 8.

Nearly every unit is engaged in combat on both sides with a mutual destruction happening in turn 8.

Cracking game!









Sunday, 17 March 2019

ADLG-R AAR 30 Years War French vs Later English Civil War Royalists

For this weeks game of ADLG-R, we have the classic French vs English brawl.

Elliot from CLWC brought the 30 Years War French and I brought the English.

Elliot's French are from Testudo Miniatures and are beautiful. 

Here a close up


The English won the initiative and invaded France.

The table was pretty open with one flank blocked by two enclosed fields and then on the French table edge a gentle hill.





Turn 1, both lines advance, artillery not proving very effective.

Turn 2 the English push forward on the right hand flank with the Elite Firelocks (LMI Shot) advance to get into shooting range.  The Cavaliers don't advance due to to lack of pips.

The French send off a single heavy cav with pistol to counter the Firelock flank.



Turn 3.  The French mounted charge the Firelocks, deciding that melee is better than getting shot at.

The French artillery proves to be very effective, causing lots of cohesion markers on the English as they advance.



Turn 4.  The French prove to be more aggressive than the English and charge as soon as possible.  On the French right hand flank, three Elite Heavy Cav with Pistol and Heavy Cav with Pistol charge the unarmoured Cavaliers, supported by a Pike & Shot.

Turn 5
The French mounted retreat from melee with the Firelocks and slowly start to break thru the English left hand flank.

The French artillery continues to pound the English foot as they advance.


Turn 6

The French mounted realise they are about to be pushed off the table and charge the Elite Cavaliers.


Turn 7
The English foot finally advance in the centre and charge the artillery that had been causing soo much trouble. 

The English Firelocks blow away the mounted thru shooting and start to advance towards the engaged French mounted and baggage.

It's looking good for the English.

Turn 8

The English left hand flank crumbles with Dragoons and Firelocks being killed in melee.  Lord Preston Tarquin Rupert the Third was killed as the unit routed.  The Cavaliers crumble against the heavy French mounted and the Pike & Shot isn't looking forward to the the flank charge

Turn 9

The French break the English!

The end score was 23 elements lost out of 23 for the English and 22 out of 23 for the French.

If the English General hadn't got caught in the rout, the English would have had them!

Curses.


Tuesday, 12 March 2019

ADLG-R WIP Imperial Austrians

I picked up a new army from Lancashire Games during their Xmas sale.

You do have to love a 20% sale.

They aren't the sharpest of models, but when you can do an army with all the options for less that £80, you have to love that.

All that needs to be done now is to matt varnish them and get them onto the table.


The Generals



Later Pike & Shot, the grey units will be the Elite units

Artillery


The mounted.  This army is more about it's foot but still has a decent cav wing


Dragoons

More Pike & Shot.
These are the later style of Pike & Shot, so, less pike, more musket

Saturday, 9 March 2019

ADLG-R 30Years Germans vs English New Model Army

I've got the ADLG-R rules to the point where I'm pretty happy with them and its now down to get people testing them.  After lots of testing, plotting and tweaking the mounted rules, I've removed the heavier of the mounted that were meant to be the renaissance version of knights. 

After some tweaking of points, the game works on 250 points of troops on a standard 200 ADLG table.  This gives you about 23 elements worth on the table but still some flanks to push thru.

This week I got Dave A from the CLWC club to give the rules a go.  He like me, was a big FoGR player but he's pretty much given up on them and has moved to ADLG.  So, good person to test the rules and see if they work.

I brought my traditional 30 Years War Germans and he brought English New Model Army.

The English won the initiative and invaded Germany.

My left hand flank was anchored by the star fortress (village). 

My left and right hand flanks comprised of Reiters (medium cav with carbine), Kurassiers (Heavy cav with Pistol, Elite), a dragoon and a Pike & Shot.  The center comprised of the bulk of the infantry, 2 Pike & Shot, 2 Elite Pike & Shot and 2 medium Artillery.

The English brought a similar force but all their mounted was Heavy Cav with pistol, so, could I outshoot them before they broke thru my flanks.

The armies deployed


Turn 2, the English advance under fire. Precision German artillery hitting on turn 1.

German turn 2, lots of shooting and markers everywhere.

Turn 4
The English break thru on my right flank but the English center is starting to wobble with most of the infantry close to breaking.






 A few turns later we had to stop the game due to the need to get to the train.

The English left flank had been broken thru and their center had a very large hole in it.






Tuesday, 19 February 2019

ADLG Communal Italians off to Burton 2019

Andy and I are teaming up for Badcon in Burton upon Trent.

The competition period is 300 points any book 1251—1500AD
So, we've decided to go for something fun but with a lot of options.
We've gone for Papal Communal Italian.
Andy is our master of puns and come up with the general names
Army is lead by Pope Giltiparti
The knight command is lead by Eduardo Crilli
Alberto Bertorelli will be leading the 2nd foot command
Tanquard de Limoncello will be leading the foot assault command.

The Runners & Riders

Lots of scary armies, so, let's see how well we go.

ADLD Runners and Riders.
1 PAUL DAWSON & PAUL JOHNSTON                   ALBANIAN 1452AD
2 GORDON JAMIESON & DAVID ALLEN                 CASTILIAN 1480AD
3 STEVE ROYLE & JASON SCOTT                          AZTEC 1500AD
4 RICHARD CASE & DAVE SAUNDERS                  YUAN CHINESE 1293AD
5 SIMON LeRAY MEYER & ANDY FINKEL               PAPAL ITALIAN 1283AD
6 ANDY GILBERT & MARK DUDMAN                       KHMER 1252AD
7 NIK SHARP & DAVE HANDLEY                             KHMER 1251AD
8 ANDY WALLACE & MARTIN ROUTH                    HYW FRENCH 1400AD
9 TONY PARKIN & CHRIS TONGE                          INDONESIAN 1400AD
10 ANDREW & MATHEW MARTIN                           SERBIAN 1381AD
11 ALAN COLE & PAUL CARTER                            HYW FRENCH 1429AD
12 MICK HOOD & ROB ASHLEY                              VENETIAN 1495AD
13 ADRIAN STEER & ANDY McKAY                        FRENCH ORDONNANCE 1479AD
14 MALCOLM GORDON & JOHN EDWARDS         HUNGARIAN 1442AD
15 GRAEME CARROLL & ROBERT MIDDLEMIST  FRENCH ORDONNANCE 1481AD
16 FREDRIK BODIN & FREDRIC BOHM                  SWISS 1476AD
17 KEVIN JOHNSON & ROB TAYLOR                      SWISS 1401AD
18 MICHAEL BENNETT & COLIN SHARPE              YUAN CHINESE 1292AD
19 HUW PEREGRINE-YOUNG & MARTYN BOLTON  HYW ENGLISH 1346AD

I am Ashurbanipal king of the world, king of Assyria


Now for something different!

I went to the British Museum to see their special event on Assyria.

I don't know much detail about the pre biblical period so it was a great starter into this incredible period.







A cuniform "book", carved into stone.  The size of the font is really small



To give colour to these objects, the museum used a projector.


Showing the power of the King and his acquaducts




One of the wall plaques showing a battle