El Cid Warhammer Ancient Battles

At some point over lockdown Stephen painted up an El Cid Spanish army - using mostly Footsore models.

He's packing his house up in preparation for moving to the Isle of Man and wanted to give them a run out for the first time before packing them away. So we dusted off the excellent El Cid supplement and the 1.5 version of WAB. We were aiming for around 2,000 points but in the end I just threw down what was about the right amount.

I had a core of spearmen and pushed some cavalry up on my right

Inevitably Spanish light cavalry swarmed my flank.

At this point I changed the settings on the camera qhich makes things look bleaker then they were...

The Almoravid centre steamrollered on.

While the Christian cavalry waited

More light cavalry on my left too

Facing the mighty Kamel Korps of Khamu Khazi

The Berber horse forgot to run away and I remembered how rubbish they are.

Their death triggered a "panic bomb" and most of my right flank ran away.

Things were going better on the left, where an attempted charge was foiled and driven off with javelins

Meanwhile my centre bore down

My spears rallied and faced off the caballeros

Finally the Almoravids crashed home into the peons.

My archers were caught by jinettes

Still the face off in the centre

Christian cavalry joined the fight in the middle of the lines.

However the Black Guard proved triumphant and panic gripped the Christians who fled in numbers

The caballeros continued to shoot down the Berber spear

Before deciding enough was enough, charging home and routing the spears!

My other spear unit turned to face the caballeros breaking through in the middle

With the Spanish centre destroyed the Black Guard chased off the crossbows

And with that the game came to a close. A victory to the Almoravid invaders.

Fun to get the soldiers out and WAB gives a fun game. The rules did feel a bit dated and "fantasy" after a long time away from them.

It all looked splendid with two fully painted quite big armies going at it.

Pickett's Charge - American Civil War

As a change of pace from mythical Greece Scrivs invited me over for a game of Pickett's Charge using his lovely ACW collection.

I took command of the "thin blue line" of Union troops defending a fence line while Scrivs was the grey confederate hordes. We each had three brigades but I only started with one on table and two in reserve whereas the Confederacy had the reverse. 

The Union boys line the fences

The Rebels form up

"Give 'em lead boys!"

Whoopin' and a hollerin' the Rebs come on at pace.

As the lines closed my fire discipline began to desert my men!

If you roll poorly your troops suffer penalties in future rounds unless you sort things out - we marked this with "smoke".

I had some success on my left, "whipping" a unit of Confederates and sending them scuttling back 

In response the Rebs limbered up their canon and pressed forward on my right. I was getting quite desperate for my reserves as the pressure grew.

One of my units was also "whipped" and fled to the rear

But reserves arrived and began to plug the gap

The rebels held off and a stiff exchange of fire began.

Some unlucky dice rolling by Cleetus Scrivens the Rebel commander saw his troops go "hesitant" which meant he couldn't charge home.

But the rebel cannon was now deployed on my right and began raining destruction.

More fire discipline problems for the Union!

But still the Rebels held back

The Union guns were taking a "battery-ing" but continued to blast the Rebels.

Finally on my left a charge was launched and the boys in blue retired!

More reserves were thrown in to shore things up

Fire discipline problems were not solely a Union problem.

The Union guns were finally rendered ineffective but by now the last of my reserves had arrived to plug the gap.

Still the rebel line could not force their way home

With time pressing on and the rebels on my left now broken we called the game. The Union forces had held - despite severe Rebel pressure.

Pickett's Charge gave a good game - it's a simple system (it helps when Scrivs knows *all* the rules) that seem, to my untutored eye, to give a passable impression of ACW action. March into position. Stiff exchange of fire. Occasional bloody but reluctant charging.

Scrivs was very lucky with some of his shooting rolls and I was under lots of pressure early on, however his dice discipline deserted him at crucial times meaning his Rebels wouldn't charge home. It was always a tough task for them to charge a defended fence line but delays meant I was always *just* able to shore up my defences.

Hallelujah!