A Mixed Bag For Rome

Gaming day again today. Rob and I hadn’t played each other at Fields of Glory for awhile so we rocked out a couple of games today.

 

My force was the same as usual (600pts per side again). Rob’s consisted of 6 battlegroups of Vikings (offensive spear) and 2 battlegroups of Huscarls (heavy weapon). So loads of heavy foot. Loads of spear to make life hard and pointy.

 

I didn’t check my camera before starting to snap off pics of the game. My white balance was still set on shade after playing around taking photos of the sunset at Muriwai last night. Whoops…. :) I tried a little bit of adjustment in Photoshop, but didn’t really like how they looked, so have left them as is. Not the best, but I think they still look okay.

 

Right on to the action. Game 1.

 

I won initiative and chose “agricultural” as our field of battle. Somehow all the terrain ended up in my half though!?! Probably because I chose most it.

 

 

 

Basically, we just walked towards each other. Rob had a kink in his battle line to make flanking forces think twice, but my Light Horse were game.

 

 

Having still not figured out the best way to use my Cavalry, I just decided to throw them into battle. Turned out that wasn’t the best idea. Oh well.

 

I really need to figure what to do with these guys. I think I’ve said that in each post about this force…

 

The battle continues, but things aren’t looking good. My Legionnaires have at least disrupted some of the offensive spear battlegroups giving them a chance. Meanwhile the Cavalry are broken and things aren’t looking good for the Illyrian Foot. (Here is where I also realise the error of my ways by not checking camera settings!)

 

 

To get things moving, the Light Horse spy an oppourtunity. Thinking I might sneak in flank chance…. I go for it. Only to be nowhere near the flank really and I hit the fragmented Huscarls in the front. I better break ‘em quick! My Light Horse won’t last long…. even against a fragged group.

 

 

By this stage though, one of Legion battle groups have broken through and they break another Viking battlegroup. With the other Viking groups already in a poor state…. this shakes the morale of other units eventually causing enough groups to break and it ends the game with a Roman victory.

    

 

The game didn’t last too long so we rolled out another one. Same forces, same table, but less terrain this time (I still won initiative though).

 

Game 2

 

 

Some pictures of the forces…

 

Deployment was pretty similar. Rob deployed close to his camp, but had some units positioned where he could ensure he’d flank me. As the Vikings moved they also broke up their line a bit to get the Romans thinking! I just charged straight forward. Simple is best…..

 

 

The lines soon clash…. and things do not go well… I don’t think I win any impact phases.

 

What does that mean…. well this… disrupted and broken battlegroups since I’m fighting each battle now at a disadvantage. It’s definitely not looking good. As the Legions morale falls and they take casualties it gets harder and harder. Rob is also getting Viking battlegroups onto my flank….

 

 

My mounted units work together to try and get some points…. the result is typical though. The Cavalry can’t hold on and break ending the game.

 

 

So one a piece today. A win and loss each. Both fairly decisive games. Not sure there is much either of us could have done differently in either of the games we lost..

 

I need to figure out what I’m going to do for BattleCry (an upcoming tournament I really should register for and was thinking of playing FoG). Romans are good and tough, but facing spear and pike is just plan hard. Especially with such a small force. I’ll see if I can refine the list with what I have painted currently. I think the Cav need to go…. if I can replace them with something!

 

Mark and Phil rocked a game with Phil’s Spartans vs. Mark’s Greeks. I snapped off a couple of pics:

 

 

To round out the day, I spent some time at Ardmore both before heading to games and after. Main reason to get more practice with my Sigma 100 – 500mm lens in preparation for the airshow we are heading too next weekend. I was keen to try different shutter speeds to ensure I could get nice sharp pictures, but maintain prop blur even when fully zoomed. I got my timing right today with heading out…. got some good angles.

 

DC-3 landing:

 

Roaring ‘40’s (Harvard display team) returning from practice:

   

 

Some of the other aircraft…

 

I’m pretty happy with the results. So am looking forward to next weekend!

 

I also had a couple of chances to try and photograph a Hawk. Still proving very elusive and unwilling to have a photo taken though…. this is the best I could get. One came across Ardmore, hit an updraft and just disappeared into the clouds. The others just took off into the distance…

 

Right… suppose I better go and get myself organised for work tomorrow.