Dwarf Army Finished - Iranistan campaign

One of my projects this summer was to finish painting and basing my 28mm dwarf army. Most of the figures are from Games Workshop. Others are from various games or other manufacturers. All items are plastic. They have participated in a number of battles over the years. The army has ten units of warriors, five units of missile troops and four artillery units. For the rules they normally fight under this would be about 15,000 infantry plus generals, heroes and guns. Paints used for this project were Vallejo and various acrylic types from Marshalls.
I should also note that we don't use GW rules.

Update - Since this was posted the army has been adjusted to 50x50mm bases (2inch by 2 inch) instead of 100x100mm for the infantry and represents 30,000 infantry.

Seven Years War Club Game

On November 13th Gary Zaharek umpired a Seven Years War game using a modified set of Koenigs Krieg rules and his 40mm figures at the library in Atwater, CA. The Prussians were commanded by myself and Hal Windell. Ken Mackie and Ray Jackson commanded the Austrians.
The Austrians had two heavy guns, three units of three stands of Cuirassiers, one unit of three stands of Hussars, one unit of three stands of Grenadiers, and seven units of four stands of line infantry. The Prussians had two heavy guns, two units of three stands of Cuirassiers, one unit of three stands of Dragoons, one unit of three stands of Hussars, one unit of three stands of Grenadiers, and six units of three stands of line infantry.
The first photo shows Ken Mackie on the left, Gary Zaharek in the middle and Hal Windell on the right. The next has Ray on the right and me on the left.

 





The initial deployment and first move
BATTLE REPORT OF GENERAL WILLHELM VON BUTLER
General von Windell and myself had just finished breaking camp, when our scouts reported that the Austrians had been located to the south of the village of Am Wasser. Their report indicated that we were evenly matched in guns and cavalry, but that the Austrians had us out-numbered three to two in infantry. Austrian scouts had also been seen near us. Though we were out-numbered, Von Windell and I decided to engage the enemy immediately and deployed our forces just north of Am Wasser. I placed von Windell in command of our right wing with two brigades of musketeers and both batteries of heavy guns to the west of the village. I retained command of one brigade of musketeers, the grenadiers, and all the cavalry on the eastern side of Am Wasser.
Surveying the Austrian dispositions we saw that they had divided their cavalry and infantry almost equally between their two wings. However, General Mackie had elected to keep both batteries of heavy guns on his wing so that they could deploy on the small rise southwest of the village. He had also placed the heavier of his two cavalry brigades on his western flank along with the infantry brigade containing the grenadiers.


Austrian cavalry sweeps the field on the western edge of the battle
The heavy guns on both sides commenced firing as our army advanced towards the enemy. The Austrian cuirassiers moved forward on the western flank followed by their Grenadiers and musketeer brigade. On the eastern flank the Austrian infantry formed squares and their cavalry headed towards the western edge of the battle. Seeing this I ordered our dragoons and hussars to also move towards the western flank. At this point the musketeer brigade on our western flank suffered a disastrous reverse. It had moved up to fire upon the Austrian cuirassiers in order to drive them back, when the left regiments' came under fire from the Austrian artillery and fell back. General Evar Reddy's cuirassiers immediately charged the remaining regiment and destroyed it. They then overran the heavy battery that had been stationed on the rise behind the musketeers and swept on down into the backs of the regiment that had fallen back. General Evar Reddy's cuirassiers just kept on going as they pursued the remains of the musketeers to the north.
 


The overall battlefield viewed from the west following the success of the Austrian cavalry charge and the Prussian cuirassiers advancing around the flank of the Austrian infantry on the east.
With our right flank dangerously exposed, our dragoons and hussars were advancing as quickly as possible to cover it. Meanwhile I decided to attempt an out-flanking move with the cuirassiers on the eastern side of the battle. This drew the remaining Austrian cavalry back to protect their right wing. Having just reformed into lines from squares the two musketeer regiments immediately reformed into squares. I sent the grenadiers into the village to secure it. At this point the prospects of victory for our army were very dim. The most we could hope for was to slow down the Austrian advance and maybe inflict enough casualties on them that they would not press on. At this point we had twice as much cavalry remaining on the field of battle, but the Austrians had twice as many guns and infantry.
 



The Austrian infantry advances on the town. The aftermath of the Prussian counter-advance.
Though our grenadiers attempted to hold the town the enormous advantage the Austrian musketeers had in numbers began to tell as our grenadiers fell one by one to their relentless fire. General Mackie decided to envelop the village from the west with his musketeer brigade, while General Jackson pressed on from the front. At this point General von Windell saw an opportunity to position one of the regiments from his remaining musketeer brigade so that it would be able to attack the flank of either of the two Austrian brigades facing him. Meanwhile our dragoons and Hussars moved into position to threaten the Austrian grenadiers and musketeers on the western edge of the battlefield. Seeing this threat they elected to form squares, leaving both forces to stare at each other for the remainder of the battle. Facing the firepower of my musketeer brigade, General Jackson moved his musketeer brigade near the town back. I ordered one of the cuirassier regiments to engage the remaining Austrian cuirassiers in the hope of turning the eastern flank. This was not to be as General Jackson threw them back and ran them off the field. He then followed up his advantage and threatened our remaining cuirassier regiment. Again, our situation was looking bleak as I ordered the grenadiers back out of the town due to suffering serious casualties from their opponents.
The aftermath of the Prussian counter advance.
With the battle now looking to be lost, fortune finally turned our way. Our remaining cuirassiers were able to engage their opponents and chase them from the field. Our officers were able to keep control of them and after disposing of the enemy cuirassiers, reformed and faced the last remaining Austrian cavalry regiment of hussars. General von Windell was able to launch a frontal and flanking attack on the closest musketeer regiment near the town and broke them. He then advanced on the guns and the other regiment of the brigade. The telling fire from his brigade silenced one battery of Austrian guns and drove the other musketeer regiment from the field. General Mackie had ridden into Am Wasser and personally ordered the musketeer regiment that had taken the village to assault the grenadiers. Though they were able to storm out of the town and engage the grenadiers, our brave soldiers were able to thrust them back. I advanced my musketeer brigade and fired upon the Austrian musketeers facing them, causing their morale to collapse and saw them run from the field. At this point we had almost evened the odds against us. The Austrians withdrew their remaining troops from the field leaving us in control of the battlefield. Though we had won it had been at a terrible cost and our army was too exhausted to pursue them
Hal and Ray after the battle was over.
REVIEW OF THE BATTLE
Though Ken had destroyed our right flank with his curiassiers, he had unfortunately lost control of them when he made his first exploitation move. He was never able to regain control of them and they just kept going right off the table after destroying every unit in their path. If they had remained in control the battle would have been lost by lunch time. I also made a number of mistakes during the game, most notably only engaging with only one cuirassier regiment on the eastern flank. Koenigs Krieg allows Prussian infantry to perform two different action during a turn. Thus Prussian infantry can move and fire while other infantry can only move or fire. I was able to take advantage of this by moving up and firing on the Austrians on one turn and then with the initiative advantage on the next turn I was able to fire and pull back out of range. This ability to move and fire is what finally broke the Austrian center, as we were able to move up and fire upon them causing enough casualties that their units failed their morale tests and retreated. At the end of the game we had three brigades at or below half strength out of our original five, while the Ken and Ray had four of their six brigades in the same state. At the end of the eighth turn both armies took an army morale test. Ken and Ray failed theirs, while Hal and I barely passed ours. Overall it had been an exciting and fun game with the chance of victory hanging in the balance until the final turn of the game.
Thanks to Gary for umpiring and providing the troops buildings and terrain for the game. Thanks to Ray for arranging for use of the library and providing the table cloths. Thanks to Ken for a hard fought battle and to Hal for helping to secure victory for our side. Ray is a member of the Friends of the Library and they have a room with tables available for our use. Some of our other club members also have libraries in their home towns that have rooms for community clubs to use.

The Drujistan Campaign

From the Histories of Letterman the Scribe:

It is with great sadness that I am writing about the failure of our campaign into Drujistan. Even though we were able to defeat the enemy in battle our forces were so worn and exhausted, they were unable to pursue them and destroy the survivors. Also, both Governor Mondyar and General Herodotos had been wounded during the battle and needed to be brought back to the provincial capital to recover.

The campaign had started on a high note with a rousing speech by Governor Mondyar to the assembled troops prior to setting out on the road to the ruined city of Yanaidar on the twentyfifth day of the month. For six days we had marched along the road encountering no resistance. The soldiers had begun to discount the tales of demons and other monsters that inhabited the hills and mountains of this forsaken land. Then on the night of the sixth day strange howling sounds were heard throughout the night.

Many of the men were unable to sleep though one of them, a mighty warrior from Cimmeria, seemed to take no notice. Named Conan, he served in one of the light infantry units, and had been given the title "O'Bryan" by the Ilyurz hill-men for his strength and prowess with weapons.

The strange noises ceased shortly before dawn and the army had its morning meal, broke camp and set out upon the road again. We had been on the march for about two-and-a-half hours, following the road along a river valley, when our scouts reported that we were approaching a village and that a large horde of the enemy's troops was approaching from over the hills to our left. According to the old map we were using the village was named Rabid Rabbits Rapids.

General Herodotos was somewhat stunned at first when the scouts reported that there were at least three of the enemy for every two of us, but recovered quickly and ordered the cavalry to form up off the road in order to allow the rest of the army to move up and deploy to face the enemy. The account of the battle follows further in this document.

One thing that should be noted is the strange behavior of Governor Mondyar prior to the battle. As governor of Sushan Province he had always taken great care of the responsibility that he had. Our people follow many faiths and he had always been respectful to them. His loyalty to the Kingdom of Iranistan and never been questioned and he had always been a good and efficient governor. Today, however, he was saying things that were totally out of character. These included, "I am opposed to the government of Iranistan", "The water god who's temple was destroyed was not of my faith and its destruction does not concern me", "I will quit my job as governor and move to Vendhya", "I do not want our forces to be known as the Army of Iranistan" and similar sayings. It was though he had been cursed by some spell of the enemy, yet when battle commenced he fought bravely at the head of the infantry, leading them in a charge against the loathsome man-apes of the enemy.

After the battle, while he was recovering, the priests examined him hoping to find any trace of a spell that would have caused him to speak in such a bizarre manner. Sadly, no trace of any such spell could be found. Governor Mondyar was arrested and charged with treason against the Shah, betraying the honor of the soldiers under his command, attempting to desert his duties as governor of the Province of Sushan, failure to bring retribution to the defilers of a temple of a god vital to agriculture of the people, and demeaning said god and his followers. His trial is due to take place on the eleventh day of this month.

General Herodotos was able to recover from his wounds. For his valiant actions during the Battle of Rabid Rabbits Rapids he was awarded the title of Weapons and Warfare Master by the Shah.

THE BATTLE of RABID RABBITS RAPIDS

The club game was held at the Atwater Library on Saturday October 31. The battle was set in Robert E. Howard's Hyborian Age of Conan.

Commanding the Iranistani forces were Ray Jackson (Governor Mondyar) and Harold Windell (General Herodotos). Their army in order of march was 5000 regular cavalry, 1000 Auxiliary Cavalry, 2000 light infantry, 3000 auxiliary infantry, 6000 heavy infantry, and 10 elephants. Herodotos commanded the van and had the two priests with him. Governor Mondyar commanded the elephants, heavy infantry and the auxiliary infantry.  Their objective was the destruction of the village of Rabid Rabbits Rapids.

Ken Mackie commanded the Drujistani hordes. He placed the 3000 light cavalry wolf riders on his right, the Giants near his center, the Dahrkinshtorme Knights and their foot companions near the village, the 3000 archers were placed next to the village, and the 15000 warriors were scattered across the remainder of his battle line. Ken also had two magic users that he deployed near the center of his line. He placed his hero and army commander on the left at the village and his other general with the wolf riders.

We had expected several additional players to participate, but illness and last minute family affairs prevented them from arriving.

The Iranistani forces entered the table in road column in the order listed above and took four turns to get all units on table. Meanwhile the Drujistan forces advanced from their table edge.
Their two magic users did not fair well during the battle. One was lost during the first use of magic when Ken rolled a double three on two ten-sided dice and then failed to roll higher than a three on one ten-sided die. The other one blew up in spectacular fashion and set fire to the woods he was in by rolling a double ten a couple of turns later. For these rules magic works on the difference of two ten-sided dice with doubles causing that many hits against the caster. Failure to score higher than the number of hits results in the death of the magic user.

Ken's wolves attacked the elephants and a unit of heavy infantry on the Iranistani left while his giants moved up and hurled some boulders into a unit of Iranistani heavy infantry. Both sides exchanged some bow fire prior to the main battle lines engaging each other.

The Drujistani foot were armed with light spears and swords, except for the archers who were armed with bows and swords, the wolf riders had bows and light spears, the knights had lances and their companions had an assortment of heavy weapons. The Iranistani army had heavy infantry (the equivalent of late imperial Roman legions) with throwing weapons and some archers, light infantry with bows and light spears, auxiliary infantry of half spear and half bow, elephants with bow armed crews, and all their cavalry equipped with light spears and bows.

The Iranistani priests fared much better than their opposites. After the last of their opposites had gone up in a ball of fire they ganged up on the giants and caused enough damage to make them flee. The giants flight took them through one of the warrior units and they ended up routing also. Towards the end of the game the priests were able to target the Drujistan hero and slay him also.

The engagement of the two battle lines lasted a couple of turns. Finally enough of the Drujistan warriors broke that their army morale collapsed. Prior to this the auxiliary unit that Conan was with broke and Conan was last seen cursing at them in a vain effort to stop their flight. However, he ended up getting swept up into the rout. The Dahrkinshtorme Knights and their companions shrugged off almost every attack that the Iranistanis made against them. (Most of the units in the game were classed as five or six for their defense value - based on their armor and shields. The knights and their companions were classed as eight due to being completely armored with shields). The Iranistani elephants were finally routed also and fled off the table with no one in their path.

Both Governor Mondyar and General Herodotos were wounded in combat and removed from the battle as they led their troops in melee. The Drujistan general commanding the wolf riders also fell fighting the elephants.

At the end of the battle 1000 wolf riders, 9000 warriors and archers, and the giants were routed on the Drujistan side. On the Iranistan side 1000 heavy infantry, 1000 light infantry and the elephants had been lost. The Iranistanis were declared the winners, but due to the loss of Governor Mondyar and General Herodotos along with the shaken state of many of the remaining units they had to end the campaign into Drujistan.

Thanks to Ray for providing the hills, woods, roads, and stream for the game. The skeleton archers were painted by Steve Montgomery. Due to my forgetting to bring the box with the orc archers they were pressed into service for the game. Also, I thought that I had taken a picture with Ray in it, but it appears that I did not do so.

Positions at the end of the first four turns looking towards the village of Rabid Rabbits Rapids.












Positions at the other end of the road after the first four turns.












Ken, in the background surveying the battle field. The Dahrkinshtorme Knights and their foot companions are in the forground.










The Snot's Grays engage the heavy infantry next to the elephants while their fellows attack the elephants. The Auxillary horse are getting clobbered by the giants, Skintag and Goodtime near the center of the picture. Meanwhile the infantry battle lines of both sides are preparing to engage in hand-to-hand combat with their opposites.










Hal makes some adjustments.











The two battle lines contact.















The aftermath of the contact. The markers have a number on them and indicate how much damage each unit has taken.
Another view. This one shows the Iranistani cavalry taking punishment from the Dahrkinshtorme Knights and friends, while Conan and his auxillary unit are running for the rear just above them.




















View of the other end of the battle line at the end of the game.

Council chanber, Governor's Palace, Sushan Province, Iranistan

"Strategos Herodotos, what forces do we have available for the Drujistan expedition?"

"We have 6000 regular cavalry, 3000 barbarian cavalry, 6000 heavy infantry, 2000 light infantry, 3000 barbarian infantry, and 10 elephants, Excellency", came the reply. "We will have to leave some troops to guard the province, but most can be taken with us."

"Good. What are your recommendations as to which troops we should take?"

"We should leave 1000 of the regular cavalry and 2000 of the barbarian horse. That will be enough to maintain order and patrols while the main army advances on Drujistan. The territory we are invading is hilly and mountainous and infantry would serve us better. The elephants may also help as they have only recently arrived from the capital city of Anshan and the invaders have not seen them before."

"That will be fine.", Governor Mondyar replied. "Do we have any information on the enemy's territory?"

"Very little your Excellency. Mostly tales of demons, though none have been seen. Just strange howling noises. There are stories of a lost city named Yanaidar somewhere in the mountains. Our agents believe that the Yezemite cult may be located there. Their assassins have been responsible for the deaths of several important people. There is an old road that leads into the mountains that would probably be the best route to take. One of our scribes did locate an old map that indicates that the road would lead to that city. If the map is correct it will take about a weeks march from here to reach it."

"Then it will be best that we follow that road. As for the demons, we will bring some priests with us. The creatures that attacked our villages were ugly apelike things, but definitely not demons. They need to be punished for their destruction of the water god's temple and eliminating the Yezemites would also be good. Have the army prepared to march seven days from now. The end of the month will also see the end of our enemies."

6mm projects completed

The following are some of the 6mm ancients units that I have completed this past year.
Three views of the Argyraspides. Figures by Rapier Miniatures. Unit is 10 deep by 24 wide. The figures have been based so that they may be used for both Field of Glory and Warmaster.

Chalkaspides

Leukaspides

Rapier phalangites with pike in upright position. Used for poor quality phalanx. Formation is 24 wide by 12 deep.

Early Achmaenid Persian infantry (Baccus and Rapier) I used the colors of the Immortals in the Osprey book.

Indian javelinmen. Heroics and Ros. I have some H&R chariots, H&R cavalry, Baccus javelinmen and Baccus elephants to finish.

Indian archers and elephants. Elephants by H&R and Irregular. Archers by Baccus and H&R

Carthagenian citizens and African spearmen by Rapier miniatures. Also being used for hoplites.

Projects completed

The following photos were taken with indoor lighting that I should have adjusted for. The background is actually white so there is a bit of color shift. These are 25/28mm figures that I have painted this year.

Three units of archers filling in as Bossonian archers for Aquilonia.













Two more units of archers.

Billmen







 




The following figures will be used in the club game on Halloween day.

Iranistan regular cavlary.

Iranistan regular heavy infantry.

Irregular infantry in Iranistan employ.

Irregular cavalry in Iranistan employ

Iranistan regular light infantry

Governor's Palace, Sushan Province, Iranistan

"How will Governor Mondyar react to the news", was all the aide could think of as he hurried down the hall to the governor's office. Arriving at the door, he gave it a hurried knock.
"Enter", came the reply.
"Your excellency, I have dreadful news. Another village has been attacked and this time the Drujistan invaders have suceeded in destroying the village and a sacred temple"
"This is too much. Twice before our army has driven them off before they could cause much damage. Tell the Strategos that he is to assemble as many troops as possible and prepare them to attack Drujistan by the end of this month!"
"Yes, your excellency"