Great Naval Battles of Chuck Heston, 15mm galleys

Yes! After years of sitting idle in the storage closet, Great Naval Battles of Chuck Heston (also known as Great Naval Battles of the Silver Screen) was back in play. My brother and I use to run this game at Nashcon back in the early nineties, using the old Minifigs My Galley Salley ships (by the way if you have 1 or 2 gathering dust let me know). Spent a few days painting up a few more galleys and some crew for a new total of 27 ships! I let everyone know by email and via Facebook, it pays to advertise if you want a good turnout. 10 players showed up, with  running the game.
Romans with Greek and Rhodian  allies (Lots of infantry and seamanship with the Rhodians)
vs
Hellenistic Monarch with Greek and Eastern allies. (Lots of machines and archery)

As usual some players attempted a little tactical maneuvering but it quickly turned into a brawl.
Slim Roman victory in the end.

Hellenic Monarch McGinnius V

Roman Consul Stelios checking the signs

Part of Hellenic fleet

Setup and some early worrying

 

About to get to grips

The bloody melee

Ship view

The Battle of Heraclea

So for 3 years now Andrew Jordan has been slowly painting up an Early Republican Roman army. During this time he has been coming down to Treefort and running small games of Clash of Empires with David Clayton. Well Andrew's beautifully painted figures will get just about anyone's attention. So slowly I started painting up some of those wonderful Warlord plastic Macedonians. Then last month Andrew suggested Heraclea, Pyrrhus versus the Romans. Andrew would provide all the Romans, Elephants and most of the Cav, David the Italian allies and I the Phalanxes. So the night before I was basing the last 8 stands while Andrew was finishing the river.
We were joined by Stelios and Steven the next day, neither of which had ever played Clash of Empires.
It was Awesome! Who knew Andrew had so many Romans.
 It was Beautiful! Those Romans were breathtaking.
It was a close run thing! Those Roman Maniples are nasty,
I now give you Andrews pics and commentary.

Romans begin surging across the River Siris

Having crossed, the leves skirmishers chase off most of Pyrrhus' skirmishers/ light troops holding the opposite bank

Pyrrhus riding to engage the enemy cavalry. His forces dominated his right flank. Elephants chased off most Roman allied cav.

The dreaded Macedonian phalanx. Most leves were chased off by the more experienced peltasts.

Hastati widen the maniples and discharge pila as the Macedonians charge to throw them back into the river.

Meanwhile on the right the Thessalian cav grinds down one unit of Roman cav but is eventually defeated by the remaining unit, led by its tribune. Right flank becomes a stalemate, with the victorious Roman unit exhausted.

Back to the center, where fighting is fierce. Hastati forced to retire and the Principes take up the fight. Armred with thrusting spears, they make more of a in impression on the Macedonians.

With Pyrrhus having cleared the Roman left flank, history is almost repeated by an elephant charge into the Roman flank...stopped at the last moment by an unnamed Italian ally who wounded the elephant, causing it to run amok back into the Cretan archers. A number of Roman units on the left were retreating.

Good pic of the battle's effective end. Romans break a pike unit and another nearby panics and flees. But with neither side having a coherent battle line, both sides retire - so a tie was declared. Though he didn't win this one, Pyrrhus at least kept the Romans at bay, so a semi-historical outcome. Roman leadership by Consul Laevinus in the middle kept this from turning into a full rout.

Hoplites for Clash of Empires

So to raise an army for Clash of Empires, I just finished rebaing all my Hoplites. Most are the older Foundry with some 1st Corps in the mix. Also if I may note with pride that my wife painted many of these! I've had these figs for years, now they may finally see the table. Two units of Hoplites to help my Macedonians. Now to paint more pikes.

Mercenary Hoplites

Mikeules reviews the troops

Foundry

Left- Foundry, Right 1st Corps

Phalanx for Clash of Empires

Just finished my first box of the Warlord plastic Macedonian Phalanx. Easy to assemble and easy to paint!