When I first got back in to the hobby in 2017, I purchased figures from Calpe Miniatures to form a Napoleonic Division. Their Saxon figures were excellent and I chose to build the 24th Division (1st Saxon) of Reyneir’s VII Corps. Unfortunately the white uniforms with yellow trim were a little beyond my painting skills for a first project. So I put the figures aside for a while so I could paint other periods.
This December I decided to revisit the project. I set a target of painting the entire division plus supports by the end of the year. While no-where near perfect, my painting skills have improved enough that I am able to achieve reasonable units. Nevertheless, the white uniforms and yellow trim have still tested me at times.
The first units that I decided to paint were the Saxon Prinz Maximillion and von Rechten Battalions. Both have yellow trim. The former has yellow metal buttons and the later has silver metal buttons.
Basing the units
I plan to use General de Brigade and/or General de Armee rules. Each Battalion has four companies each represented by an eight figure base. Each base has an officer on the front right and an NCO at the back left. One base has a flag figure (the flags will arrive in the New Year). I plan to have a command base for each battalion with a Chef de Battalion and a drummer. Each Battalion will also have two bases each of two skirmishers. The company bases are 80mm x 40mm. The skirmish bases are 40mm x 60mm and the command bases will be 40mm x 40mm.
The project scope
The first Brigade of the 24th Division will have two light, a guard, and the two Musketeer Battalions shown. It will also have 6 Jagers.
The second Brigade of the 24th Division will have 4 Musketeer Battalions and a Grenadier Battalion.
The Division will also have two foot artillery Batteries.
Supporting the Division I plan to have Saxon Hussars and Uhlans.
The next units that I plan to paint are the two Battalions of the Prinz Freidrich August regiment. These will have white uniforms with a green trim. I hope to have these two Battalions complete by mid February. However, I have another project to complete for Cold Wars 2023 in March, so timing may need to be flexible.
The Polish Grand Hetman (the great Jeff Wasileski) arrived to review the performance of his troops at Fall In! Below the photo is a quick video showing all of the deployed troops before the start of the battle.
Last weekend we carried out a play-test of the Battle of Bila Tserkva 1651 at the Wargaming Association of Metropolitan Philadelphia. The game will be played at Fall In! at 9am next Saturday. Bila Tserkva is a town in modern day Ukraine, located about 50 miles south of Kyiv. I believe that Bila Tserkva is the Ukrainian spelling and Biala Cerkiew is Polish. In English the literal translation is White Church, which of course required me to build the white Church.
The Battle was between the forces of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Cossacks of Khmelnystsky.
In this post I will discuss the research, give the orders of battle, show the initial deployments, and discuss key features. I don’t want to discuss the play-test itself too much as I don’t want to give things away prior to Fall In!. I will do an after action report following the convention.
Research.
I have used a Polish book by Marcin Domagala titled “Biala Cerkiew 23-25 IX 1651” as the main text to research the battle. There is very little information in English on this battle, so I have spent many hours with Google Translate.
Book used to research the battle
The other main information used to recreate the battle were two period pictures. I really wanted to capture the feel of the pictures while staying true to the account of the battle in the book.
Poles on the left, cossacks on the right.
The main item that I wanted to capture from this first image is the double wagon tabor camp of the Poles. This required a huge amount of work in preparing a load of wagons, but I think that it was worth it. The other item of note is the defenses of the cossacks on the right. These were old, poorly maintained defenses of the Bila Tserkva fort. I also wanted to make sure these were represented.
Polish checkered deployment and the mass of cossacks.
The second photo show the Polish checkered deployment which was typical of their battle tactics of the time. The other item of note from the photo is the mass of cossacks on the right. It was important for me to recreate both of these items. This photo required me to paint a mass of cossacks for this battle over and above the ones I already had.
Order of Battle.
The following is the order of battle that I plan to use. I make no claims as to the accuracy of this order of battle, but I feel that it gives a good representation of the forces used and makes for an interesting game:
Polish and Lithuanian
Overall Command Base
One unit of 8 German Reiter Style cavalry
Center
Heavy Cavalry Command Base
One unit of 8 Winged Hussars
Three units of 8 Pancerni
Infantry Command Base
Two units of 12 German style pike
Four units of 12 German style shot
Three units of 12 Haiduks
Two medium cannons
Forty two wagons, some with small cannons
LEFT FLANK
Noble levy cavalry command base
Five units of 8 Noble levy cavalry
RIGHT FLANK
Polish cossack cavalry command base
Four units of 8 Polish cossack cavalry
Polish cossack cavalry command base
Four units of 8 Polish cossack cavalry.
Cossacks and Tatar
Tatar Overall Command base
Cossack Overall Command base
LEFT FLANK
Tatar command base
Four units of 8 Tatar cavalry
Cossack command base
Four units of 8 Cossack cavalry
CEnter
Infantry command base
Three units of 12 Register cossacks
Four units of 12 Moloitsy cossack
Three units of 30 Cossack Peasants
Infantry command base
Three units of 12 Register cossacks
Four units of 12 Moloitsy cossack
Three units of 30 Cossack Peasants
Three medium cannons
Right Flank
Cavalry command base
Four units of 8 Tatar cavalry
Reserves
Tatar Command base
Four units of 8 Tatar Cavalry
Cossack cavalry command base
Four units of 8 Cossack Cavalry
Deployments for Bila Tserkva 1651
Photos of the Polish initial positions
Here are some photos of the Polish initial deployments going from right, through center to the left.
The Polish right flank showing the mounted Polish style CossacksPolish center showing the wagon Tabors with troops out frontPolish center with checker board troops deployment The Polish Noble Levy on the left flankA view down the Polish lines
Photos of the cossack initial positions
Here are some photos of the cossack initial positions:
Tatars on the rightCossack CenterCossack leftLooking down the Cossack line
Key features of the battle Bila Tserkva 1651.
The Battle of Bila Tserkva 1651 took place between two rivers which join behind the Cossack defenses at Bila Tserkva. These rivers are off table. Adjacent to the Ros river on the cossack left were some marshes, burial mounds and apiaries. I felt that it was important to represent these as they had a role in the battle.
The Burial mounds with Bee Hives on the rightSome more burial mounds and bee hives
Of course the Battle of Bila Tserkva (“white church”) needs a white church and other buildings.
Bila Tserkva
The Polish wagon tabor is an essential element of the game and took a lot of time to build. They are two rows deep rather than the three in the period picture but that is a compromise I was prepared to make for the sake of my wallet and sanity.
The Polish wagon tabors
The final feature that I wanted to recreate was the Cossack defenses and the massed cossacks behind them. I think that I managed to achieve an accurate representation of the images.
Cossack defenses and massed troopsAnother view of the defenses and cossacks
Summary
This blog post is intended to give some of the background of the Bila Tserkva 1651 game and information on orders of battle and deployments. I feel that I have captured the spectacle that I was trying to achieve. The book and pictures of the battle really helped me design this game.
I will give details of how the battle played out in an after action report in a few weeks.
Last Saturday the Wargaming Association of Metropolitan Philadelphia ran the final play test of Trylisy 1651 for Fall In! The By Fire and Sword rules are reasonably new to us. We felt that we needed this additional game to practice and to get the balance right.
Changes.
The Trylisy 1651 game differed from the last time we play tested in a few ways:
I added a number of new buildings that I have recently painted to make the village more substantial. I really liked the new blacksmiths shed and the well.
I increased the table size from 5′ x 7′ to 5′ x 14′ to give more room for maneuver. This created more space, especially on the flanks
I reduced the number of walls, tree lines and field defenses to give the cossacks less of an advantage.
I added two units of Polish Noble Levy, one on each flank, to boost the Polish forces. These units are both insubordinate, which puts a drain on the Polish command points if not carefully managed. Because of this limitation, even though they look like a lot of figures, they don’t make the Polish too strong.
I slightly increased the size of the cossack infantry units as I had some more bases arrive from Litko.
Cossack infantry near the blacksmith shed. Pikes to the front to protect against cavalry.
How the Trylisy 1651 game played.
The Polish Pancerni and Winged Hussars, supported by a unit of Polish style cossacks attacked one side of the village. This attack overpowered the defenders. These cossack used pikes to defend themselves as there was no wall on that side of the village.
Winged Hussars in their starting position
On each flank the units of Noble Levy attacked opposing mounted cossacks, which were small units. After some initial success, the Nobel Levy found themselves struggling to get new orders. The commanders were in the center controlling the attack on the village. The combination of distance and the insubordinate rule meant that they would need three command points to receive new orders. There just weren’t enough command points available at the time. It is the first time that I have seen the command point issue take prominent place in a game. I liked the way it worked.
The new well and Register cossacks defending the wall.
As a result of the massed Polish cavalry and the lack of walls, the cossack center gradually crumbled. The only unit that really managed to hold was a unit of Register cossacks behind a wall. The lack of impetus modifier for the cavalry, and cavalry attacking infantry in defendable terrain, gave the infantry an advantage. Eventually the cavalry managed to break into the village in other areas and even the Register cossack’s position became untenable.
Noble Levy on the right flank.Noble Levy on the left flank
Changes in Trylisy 1651 for Fall In!
In the last play test of Trylisy 1651 the cossacks completely destroyed the Poles. The changes that I made for this game gave an advantage to the Poles which I now need to address. With a new set of rules it is sometime difficult to understand how to get the balance right. The combination of adding two units of Noble Levy and removing the walls around the village was just too much. I need to make a few modifications to get the balance right. However, I need to be careful not to go too much the other way.
Polish style cossacks in the centerRegister cossacks defending the village.
I plan to make the following changes for Fall In! to even the balance:
The heavy cavalry consisting of the Pancerni and Winged Hussars will not appear on the table until Turn 3. The initial assault of the Poles will therefore need to be done with the lighter cavalry. This change should prevent the cossacks being completely overwhelmed by cavalry early in the game.
I will give the village a few more walls to make it more defendable.
With the initial absence of Polish heavy cavalry in the centre, I will move the Noble Levy in a bit.
I will have a couple of defendable positions on the flanks. The will allow the mounted cossacks to advance into and dismount. This change will make the mounted cossacks a bit more effective and interesting. It will also give the Poles something to be concerned about on the flank.
The cossack position in the village became untenable
Summary
With these small changes I think that the Trylisy 1651 scenario will be balanced. These games showed the importance of play testing before a convention, particularly with a new set of rules. Being a new set of rules to us, and probably most convention goers, I will limit the players to four. This limit will allow me to teach the rules effectively.
Over the last few weeks we have been play testing the 1651 Battle of Trylisy in 28mm using the By Fire and Sword rules.
At Historicon in 2021, I ran the 1651 Battle of Berestechko using Pike and Shotte early on the Thursday morning. This Battle took place between the 28th and 30th June, 1651. The cossacks lost the battle and retreated. Eventually the Poles and Lithuanians caught up with the cossacks at Bila Tserkva (white church) on the 24th September 1651. On the Saturday morning at Fall In! 2022 I plan to run the Battle of Bila Tserkva again using Pike and Shotte rules. This game will be reasonably large and will be for 8-10 players.
Before the engagement at Bila Tserkva, the Poles fought a small engagement against some cossack units at village Trylisy on 23rd August. The village was defended by a small garrison of about 600 cossacks. At Fall In! 2022 I also plan to run the Battle of Trylisy on the Friday. As it is a smaller engagement I plan to use the By Fire and Sword rules. As the rules are more complex and detailed, I plan to limit the number of players to four. This smaller game will allow me to tech the rules to anyone who has not played them before and wants to try them out.
The mighty Winged Hussars
At our last club games day we tried the rules for a second time. We caught most of the errors that we made during a first outing of the rules, but made a few new errors. As a result of the game I believe that we now have a good understanding of the system.
Polish cossack style cavalry
Most of the errors that we made the first time involved not understanding the cossack infantry special rules, which give them some defensive options against cavalry. As a result the cossacks got massacred. Because of this game, we overcompensated by giving the cossacks too many defenses, which made it extremely hard going for the Poles. I believe we now have a good understanding of how to achieve a balanced game.
Register Cossacks in the village of Trylisy.
I am hoping that I will get a few players that want to get to learn the By Fire and Sword rules sign up for the game. In my opinion it is a set of rules that really captures the flavor of the period. Due to the size of the rule book they can seem a little overwhelming. But a convention should allow people to try them out.
Cossack cavalry in the village.
I plan to have a relatively small number of units. The Poles will have a unit of Winged Hussars, a unit of Pancerni, two units of Polish cossack style cavalry and two units of Noble Levy. The cossacks will have two unit of register cossacks, two unit of moloitsy and two units of mounted cossacks. Each player will have three units to control.
Moloitsy behind defenses
We should easily be able to finish the game of the Battle of Trylisy within the four hours.
Mounted Cossacks
For players preferring the larger game, I will be running the battle of Bila Tserkva on the Saturday with way more troops. This game will use the Pike and Shotte rules.
Historicon 2022 was held at the Marriott in downtown Lancaster PA between the 20th and 24th July. On the Saturday I ran the Battle of Ravenna, once in the morning and once late afternoon/early evening. Each battle took four hours to play.
A view of Ravenna city walls.
Running the battle at Historicon
We initially advertised the game in program for eight players. However, we managed to fit quite a few extras in and I think that we had about twelve players per session. The Battle was run with the much appreciated help of Pat, Lou and Bob from the Wargaming Association of Metropolitan Philadelphia. It takes a lot of support to keep a game of this size moving along efficiently.
The Landsknecht pike block.
The Battle of Ravenna game was run using the Pike and Shotte rules, which tend to work reasonably well in a large game in a convention setting. They give a flavor of the period and allow player unfamiliar with the rules to join in easily. To help I make easy to read unit sheets for each player – an example can be seen in the photo above.
The French center.
I believe that the game had close to 1300 figures. The largest single unit was the Landsknecht pike block with 196 figures. There were also nine other pike blocks with 36 figures. These units were supported by huge amounts of Gendarmes, light cavalry, arquebusiers and artillery.
A view looking down the table at the City walls in the background.
How the games unfolded.
Both of the games ended in a French victory (as in real life). However, the paths to victory were very different. The first game saw the Landsknechts race out to attack the defenses, only to get repulsed after a fierce struggle. This loss left the rest of the French forces to assault the defenses which had been depleted by units moving to protect against the Landsknechts. In the second game the French players were more cautious, with the French crossbow screening the Landsknechts from the massed war carts that were a feature of the battle. In the end, it was also the French center that again managed to beat the defenses.
Spanish war carts and artillery wait behind the defenses.
In both games the light cavalry battle between the Jinetes and Stradiots on the French left flank was intense. In the second game the Jinetes managed to get behind the French position and attack the artillery and threaten other units.
Also in both games the heavy cavalry battles between the French Gendarmes and the Papal Knights on the French right flank was a more cautious affair than in real life. Both sides were hesitant to engage in both games.
Siege guns threatening the city of Ravenna.
The terrain
The Ravenna city and walls and the siege works around them were just a back-drop to the game. The actual Battle of Ravenna had relatively flat terrain with only Spanish field defenses. However, I do have plans to use these city walls for a different game in the future and I bought three discounted trebuchets from the Miniature Building Authority in the dealer hall.
A view of the battlefield from inside the city.
Overall I was happy with how the city and city walls turned out. They took a while to both plan and build.
Another view from the city – French forces on the left and Spanish on the right.
To prevent this post becoming too long, I will now just show some pictures from the Battle of Ravenna games. In a future post I will do the orders of battle that I used.
Photos of the battles
The Spanish war cartsThe Papal KnightsLandsknecht pike assaulting the Spanish war cartsA view of the Spanish defensesA close up of the Spanish receiving the French attackersThe second game with French crossbow screening the advancing pike.Another view of the Spanish Colunela in defenseAdvancing French crossbowA cardinal rallying the Papal InfantryItalian infantry push the Spanish off the defenses.The Italians and French push their advantage The French infantry finish the job, while the Landsknechts are delayed by the Gendarmes threatening their flank.The light cavalry battles on the flank were intense during both games.Thanks to all of the players – it is great for a GM when they have fun.
Last year at Historicon, I did the Battle of Bicocca 1522. The Battle had quite a lot of scenery required for the action including the field defenses and the villa Bicocca with the large Italian Gardens. You can see a report on the Battle here. This year I will be doing the Battle of Ravenna. The problem that I have is that the battlefield itself is limited in terms of scenery, I want to make the table look as impressive as possible for Historicon. The Battle was fought when the Spanish and Papal troops came to relieve the city of Ravenna from siege by the French. Although the city played no part in the battle, the Ravenna city walls were a backdrop to the battle.
Wood cut of the Battle showing the city of Ravenna.
Models for the walls
The solution was obvious, I needed to make the city walls of Ravenna as a backdrop to the battle. After searching the internet for a suitable kit to represent the Italian style city walls I came across the range by Tabletop World from Croatia. They are walls originally made for fantasy, but by selecting the right models from their range I was able to get a great looking wall. At first I was initially nervous about ordering from Croatia, so I placed a small order. It arrived without issue, and the company was a joy to deal with; so I then placed a larger order for the rest of the parts.
The resin model before painting.
After washing the parts with soapy water, I spray primed them in black. After a couple of days I them sprayed them brown and sealed them with a coat of matte varnish. I then used a beige paint to paint the walls and then used various powders for different tones and weathering effects.
Painting in progress
The base
Once the base painting had been done I wanted to check the layout with some city buildings. The total area is about 2′ x 4′. I didn’t want the buildings to be taller than the city walls, so I raised the walls with 2″ of foam. This meant that only the church tower could be seen rising above the walls, similar to the woodcut.
2″ foam used to raise the walls.
Another view of the base.
I kept the foam pieces at a maximum of 24″ in length so that they would be transportable. This decision meant that I needed three foam base pieces. Once the layout had been done I then shaped the base foam using a cheap woodland scenics hot-wire foam cutter. I then painted and sealed the foam with my usual mixture of brown paint, Elmers glue and model railroad ballast.
The shaped base after sealing.
Blending the base into the terrain
I then needed to make sure that the base would blend with my terrain mats rather than just sit on them. So I cut and glued some terrain mat pieces to the edge of the foam.
Some terrain mat glued to the foam to blend in to the terrain mat.
This technique is the one that I used for the field defenses at Bicocca and it worked well in that case. However, it didn’t seem quite right in this situation, so I folded the terrain mat pieces underneath and glued them. It seemed to work much better.
The terrain mat glued underneath.
The next stage was to blend in the terrain mat to the foam at the top, so I made up some more of my paint/elmers/ballast mixture. After shaving the fur mat on the top I proceeded to apply the mixture to blend things in.
Blending in the top.
Finishing and detailing.
The last stage was to add various woodland scenic flocks, grasses and bushes.
The outside finished.
That meant that the outside was finished. For inside the city I was planning to use some cobblestone mats (from Novus designs) for the city to sit on. This still meant that I needed to finish the foam on the inside. To provide a pleasing transition I made some earth retaining walls from balsa and then weathered them.
The inside retaining walls.Another view of the inside retaining walls.
The city is now complete for Historicon, all I have to do now is finish about 60 Landsknechts. Here are a couple more views of the Ravenna city walls and buildings.
Yesterday I did a test run of my 1512 Battle of Ravenna for Historicon. I will be running this game twice at the HMGS Historicon convention. Once on Saturday morning and once later on Saturday. It is for eight people at a time, but I can probably fit a few extras in. I was not originally planning on doing another Italian Wars game at Historicon. However, when the theme was announced as “World in Conflict: Italy” it really forced my hand.
Papal Cavalry
Ravenna for Historicon
This post is not designed to give too many details of the battle, game, or talk about the results of the play test. I will cover those topics in future posts. The aim is just to show a few photos of the test run as as a sort of advertisement for Ravenna at Historicon.
Papal Pike
The test run was designed to make sure that the game is balanced, as an unbalanced game is typically not great for a convention. I also wanted to make sure that it allowed all of the players to get into combat quickly. The test run was a success with the Spanish war carts performing well and the stats for the field defenses giving a very playable game. I will make a couple of minor adjustments but nothing too serious.
The Cavalry battles on each flank were a little constrained by the space, but at Historicon I will have extra room on each flank which should make for some exciting charges.
Spanish infantry wait behind the defenses
The battle was between French forces and Spanish forces that had been sent to relieve the Siege of Ravenna. Therefore the table at Historicon will include a few buildings to represent the city of Ravenna. These will not influence the game play but should add a nice scenic touch.
Spanish Light CavalryThe Spanish and Papal defenses viewed from the French side
The figures include many of the figures that I used last year at Historicon for the 1522 Battle of Bicocca. However, there are new figures including the 196 figure Landsknecht Pike block. This block will be one of the largest 28mm pike blocks ever put on the table at an HMGS convention.
French infantry
A few extra photos.
Another view of the Spanish and Papal defensesAn overview of the tablePapal Pikes with the Landsknechts approachingThe Play test team.
Thanks to Lou, Pat, Walt, Bob, Steve, Scott and Eric for assisting with the play test. I hope that Ravenna at Historicon will be as fun as last year’s Battle of Bicocca.
This weekend we had our first game with the by Fire and Sword rules. The rule set is designed to use the writers range of 15mm figures. However, I have a large collection (600 figures) of Poles, Cossacks and Tatars in 28mm. I also have about 300 Ottoman figures to paint in 28mm. I wanted to see if I could use By Fire and Sword with 28mm figures.
Changes for 28mm
We normally use Pike and Shotte rules for large games using my figures. For example, I ran the Battle of Berestechko at Historicon in 2021. I see the Pike and Shotte as more suited to large games with multiple players. However, I see that By Fire and Sword could be a very nice alternative for smaller scale skirmish games.
The only real changes that we made to the rules were that we doubled up all distances, including the movement and ranges. I then purchased custom bases from Litko that were double the frontage of the 15mm bases that By Fire and Sword sell. litho are excellent with custom orders.
In this photo you can see the custom 3 figure bases that I bought for the infantry.
Table size
The only real concern that I had was if my 5′ x 6′ table in my house would be large enough considering that the distances had been doubled. We played with 4 units per side – 13 Force Points for the Poles and 11 Force Points for the Cossacks. The table was sufficient for this sized game, but if I went any larger I would need a larger table at a club game’s day.
Polish winged Hussars on custom 3 figure cavalry bases. These are the same width as the infantry bases.
Data sheets and Quick Reference sheets.
I found that the rules take some getting used to. I had prepared unit data sheets in advance, which really helped. However, we kept needing to refer to 3 or 4 tables in the main rule book and I need to make a quick reference sheet for our next game. The quick reference sheet included in the book is just too complex.
More cossack infantry – spears in the back, guns up front.
How the rules worked out.
The main issues that we had were understanding some of the movement rules and understanding some of the details of using cossacks. This lack of understanding really put the cossacks at a disadvantage. We did not fully understand the rules advantage that the cossack pikes/spears had against cavalry. We also did not understand that cossack shot could fire (at a reduce effect) from the second row.
Winged Hussars – only three bases but still very effective.
The Polish cavalry were a lot more forgiving of not understanding the rules. The Winged Hussars were dominant throughout the game, despite only being a unit of three bases.
Polish Cossack style cavalry.The two units of Polish Cossack style cavalry, on of six bases and one of four bases.
Overall, the Poles easily won the game. Playing the game gave me many questions that I had to clarify in the rules the evening after the game. I think that we all have a better understanding of the rules now and the cossacks will be much more effective next time.
Mounted cossacks were quickly routed.Polish Pancerni
I liked the rule set, but I think that using them for small skirmish style games is the way forward for me. I just don’t see them replacing Pike and Shotte for large club games.
The final defeat of the cossacks in the test of By Fire and Sword in 28mm
To conclude, there were no major issue in playing By Fire and Sword in 28mm.
This weekend was our local club’s game day. It was the first opportunity that I have had to get some of my Catalaunian Plains figures on the table. As many of you know, I am building these forces for a game at Historicon in 2023. At the moment I only have a little less than 20% of the final forces painted, but this is enough for a small game. The game was an encounter battle between the Romans and Huns (with some of their Frank allies).
Roman forces
The Roman right flank with a weak Pseudo Comitatenses unit – Prima Flavia Gallicana Constantia
The game was my first run with the Hail Caesar rule set. From my Italian Wars games I am very familiar with the Pike and Shotte rules. The rules have many of the same mechanisms, but I underestimated the amount of differences. I now realize that I need to devote some more time to studying these rules. The good thing is that we still managed a fun game for six players.
The Roman center with two Auxilia Palatina units, the Cornuti Seniori (shown) and the Leones Iuniores (just at the edge of the camera shot.
The Roman army consisted of two Legions each of two bases, two Auxiliary units of one base each, and two cavalry units each of one base. Also, there was a scorpion and a ballista.
The Leones IunioresThe elite of the Roman force, the Legion Herculiani Seniores with the Ballista in the rear.The Roman CataphractsThe Roman Heavy cavalry – Scholar Gentilium Senirum
Hun forces
The Roman army was overmatched by the larger Hun Army. The order of battle of the Huns consisted of 15 units of light cavalry and 3 Frank war bands with two units of supporting archers. In terms of points, the Hun army was 50% larger. To counter this points difference, the Romans were playing defense and had occupied a hill position.
The Hun Horde.The Huns in the foreground with the Franks in the rear.The Frank war bands on the Hun left flankLooking down the Roman lines.
The Battle
The battle started with the Huns advancing quickly into arrow range. They took some early casualties from the Roman ballista, but concentrated their bow fire to quickly put it out of action. The Romans were taking casualties from the Hun bows, so decided to charge with their heavy cavalry and cataphracts. Despite overwhelming odds, these two units fought valiantly but were eventually destroyed by concentrated Hun archery.
The cavalry battle.The slow advance of the Franks on the Roman right.
The Huns were having success on the Roman left, on the Roman right the Franks were having trouble advancing (poor dice rolling). They were taking regular damage from the Roman scorpion. The Franks eventually got within charge range and unleashed their full fury. The Levy Pseudo Comitatenses units guarding the Roman flank quickly collapsed.
The Franks crush the Roman left
The Franks quickly destroyed the weak Roman right flank. On the Roman left flank, the Huns massed their arrows on the elite Legion and quickly routed one of the cohorts. This left the Auxilia in the center as the only viable Roman forces and they decided to retreat in good order off the table.
Conclusion
It was nice to get the first of the project figures on the table and it gave me a chance to try out the Hail Caesar rules with my Romans and Huns. The six players all seemed to have fun with this quick two hour game. The result was as predicted with the larger Hun force eventually overcoming the stiff Roman defenses. The Roman cavalry and the Frank war bands performed above expectations.
I probably won’t have time to paint any more Romans and Huns figures for this project until after Historicon 2022 in July as I am putting my attention to figures and scenery for the 1512 battle of Ravenna for the show.
