10mm Fantastic Battles - Wood Elves, Dark Elves and Dwarves going a bridge (or two) too far.

This week I was able to get down to Lisburn Gaming Club for a 2000 point game of Fantastic Battles, leading my Ziggurat Dwarves (lower left) in an alliance with Chris' Dark Elves (lower right) against Roger's Wood Elves (top). I had plans to use the river to our advantage, to sit back and bombard the pesky Wood Elves until they advanced, and thein counter their heavy infantry with our own.

But as they say, no plan survives contact with the enemy - especially when it hasn't been shared with your ally. The pre-battle mishaps saw multiple units on the allied side deploy enthusiastically forward. I think Chris was perfectly happy with that because while I dithered about trying to Blink my own enthusiastic units back into line (and failing turn after turn), the Dark Elves advanced.

Half the dwarvern army wheeled to face the on-table sweeping flank advance on the allied left.

While on the allied right, an off-table flank march caught some Dark Elf dino riders in a pickle, forcing them to turn around before even crossing the river.

In the centre, the Dark Elves pushed into the river, while neither the dwarvern sorcerer, nor the djinn, were able to cast their spells. The dwarvern ballistae fired away at the Wood Elf heavy spearmen, but an overabundance of elven mages managed to restore their resolve with Bless spells. On the far right, elven stag riders have started their sweep behind our lines to attack the Dark Elf ballistae.

On the left, the blue-shield dwarves managed not to be destroyed in their first round of melee, but only by a dwarvern whisker. The ents' heavy melee attack played havoc with the shieldwall, not helped by the dragon on their flank. The elven eagle riders flew over the red-shield dwarves, only to be pinned by flying carpet riders and a company of dwarvern highlanders.

Having scattered the blue-shields, the ents and dragon get started on the red-shields. Despite the successful attack on the eagle riders, the dwarvern flank was starting to look a bit iffy.

In the centre, the Dark Elves were holding up well, despite being mired in the river. The dino riders on the far right were miraculously still holding on, but only just, while the elven ballistae were scattered by the stag riders.

Finally managing to cast a successful spell, the djinn blinked the Wood Elves bear unit forward into a (for them) bad match up against the elite Ziggurat Guard who worked wonders with their axes. The Wood elf spearmen started across the river to lend the bears a hand, but the djinn then managed to blink them back out again, buying more time for the Ziggurati to finish off the bears.

Back on the left, the ents and dragon scattered their second unit of dwarvern shield-bearers leaving the unit of flying carpet riding dwarvern acolytes looking very lonely.

Having finally scattered the dino riders on the right, the wood elves now had complete freedom on both flanks. In the centre, they also managed to scatter both Dark Elf units that had been fighting in the river, and now had stag riders attacking the dwarvern ballistae behind the allied centre.

Despite a valiant countercharge by the dwarvern shepherd-king and his lamassu, the ballistae broke and fled.

The Dark Elf spearmen now left holding the allied right flank were surrounded and overcome, and their crossbow-wielding compatriots were charged in the flank.

By that stage the allied army was completely overwhelmed, having lost 23 companies against its 19 company breakpoint. The only allied units left (inside the blue squiggle) were scattered and in no position the force even a stalemate. The Wood Elves had lost on five companies against their breakpoint of 18; a conclusive victory by any account.

ProjectSeleukid - Phrygians and Kyrtians

This weekend I have been able to finish off a couple more units for Project Seleukid. First up is a small two-company unit of Phrygians. At Magnesia, these are brigaded on the left with Taurus highlanders from southern Anatolia - Lykians, Pisidians, Pamphylians - and other unnamed tribes numbering 6,700 in total (according to Livy). There is no indication how they were equipped, but I have supposed them to be thureophoroi.

This unit, which could also serve as Phoenician thureophoroi at a push, is made up of 28mm Victrix Achaemenid spearmen with spare Macedonian phalangite heads and thureos shields from Aventine. I admit they were a bit of a slog to get through. Maybe that was just all the interruptions in the painting programme, but I'll say that I'm also not overly keen on the dynamic poses for massed troops... The dolphin transfers are from Veni Vidi Vici, intended for 10mm hoplites.

Also freshly completed are two companies of Kyrtian slingers. The Kyrtians were Zagros highlanders, living to the north of the Elymaian archers with whom they were brigaded at Magnesia (4,000 on each flank).

These are from the same box of Victrix Achaemenid spearmen who I have used to make the Phrygians. They look very glossy in the photo, but they'll get some matt varnish in the new year once the weather is suitable again.

And finally, here is a combined shot showing the five units and three characters I have completed so far for the project. Andrew is way ahead of me (see below), but that is no surprise because the man is a painting machine!

Érineach Preserver support assets

After a few weeks where I was unable to paint due to the house being painted and being away for with family and work, I've managed to grab a few hours this weekend to finish off some stuff that has been sitting half done, eyeing me impatiently. First up, to support characters for my Érineach Preservers.

Asset F is a more lightly armoured preserver with sniper rifle, ready to provide some long-range precision to the unit. He is a 40K 2nd edition Space Marine scout (c.1998?) that I picked up cheaply on eBay. I have another clutch of scouts of the same generation on standby in case I ever need more  non-power armoured characters in the force.

And a wee cyborg gruagach providing tech-support. I love this little chap from CP models! I tried to weather and scratch up his power-clamp-fist to make it look like he's been doing a whole lot of clamping. Hopefully it will still work when needed!