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.

Cold Steel 2009

Some more old pictures from an industrial unit on the outskirts of Evesham in February 2009.

Cold Steel always lived up to its name - several layers were always advisable. 

Another splendid Warhammer Ancient Battles one day event hosted by the Gripping Beast boys.

Obviously time and age has clouded my memories, but I've no doubt it was great, that I lost more games than I won and that I played Jim Sweeney at least once - these were the immutable laws of WAB events.

I think the Romano British army in the first few pictures is actually that of Andy Hawes.

In the second game it looks like my burly Saxons are picking on some malnourished children - stealing their dinner money no doubt. I think they may have been Duncan McFarlane's (former owner/editor of Wargames Illustrated) venerable 25mm Minifigs force. He was of the opinion that mine were the incorrect size. 

Cold Steel 2008

Another blast from the past. 

Cold Steel was a WAB event run by the splendid fellows at Gripping Beast back in the day. In the particular instance the day was in January 2008.

They also ran an event called Hot Lead, which happened in the summer.

It was a friendly, good natured tournament of three games, punctuated by a "slap up feed from Mrs Miggins". You were allowed to use any Dark Age army list from the Age of Arthur, El Cid or Shieldwall supplements. I think Beyond the Golden Gate was also permitted but as that was horribly overpowered and it was an event for gentlemen no-one ever used it (at least not more than once).

While this did throw up some odd match ups - Picts v. Almoravids for instance, it kept things broadly in period and most of the match ups were reasonably balanced (apart from when playing filthy Normans, obviously).

Looks like I used my Footsore Saxons for this one.