Thursday 7 June 2012

The Battle of Panormus - or - Gisgo gets an enormous panning

Before I start the report, I have to tell you that I forgot to change my camera settings after some shots for ebay. Consequently, all but the last few shots are smaller than usual.

Balearic slingers quickly decide that velites are too much for them (they are forced to retreat with UI loss) as the Romans advance swiftly on their left and refuse their right; where.....
...we find the Numidians swooping in and out against the Roman Allied cavalry,pelting them expertly with javelins (the Romans will spend a lot of morale chips here trying to keep their allied cavalry in the field - Peter HATES Numidian cavalry).
A shot (from the Carthaginian right) of the Romans advancing 'en echelon'. 
A shot (from the Carthaginian left) of the Romans advancing 'en echelon', and the Carthaginians trying to force a cavalry envelopment with elephants in support.


 




 
Roman cavalry crests the hill -

Soldier: "Sir they're behind us!" 

Gisgo: "Bugger. That's where the elephants should have been."


The Romans come to grips, and......
....their cavalry charge downhill into the shocked Carthaginians.

Only the use of a Tactical Advantage card, by Gisgo, holds this position. 
On Rome's right it is chaos with both sides thoroughly intermingled. 

Nero has spent a fortune in morale chips but his cavalry are still there.

Gisgo: "Bugger."
The Roman force from Messana, comprising Greek hoplites, cavalry and archers supported by a contingent of Roman marines, enters stage right.

The Roman Stratagem card, followed by a March card, was drawn before Gisgo could react to the dust on the horizon.

Gisgo: "Bugger."
Rome presses an all out attack. 
The Carthaginian left, mainly made up of light troops, begins to scatter in the face of the 'off table' flanking attack.

Gisgo: "Bugger."
The Messanians are quickly into the fight. Can gisgo pull a maneouvre card out of the bag before he is hit! 

Nope, just afterwards......

Gisgo: "Oi, you sir, got any Hemlock? Bugger"
 .....when the situation is dire......

......and getting worse. Gisgo is surrounded and destroyed. His army ceases to exist and Rome lose 1 CU. The reconquest of Sicily has begun - or has it?

The troops can rest in barracks until next week. Here are the barracks. It is amazing just how many figures you can get into these IKEA cabinets. This one, granted it has four extra shelves than it came with, is holding well over 3000 figures. I'm glad I still have an empty one!

11 comments:

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

As always just real amazing tables!

Christopher

AHunt said...

Inspiring and amazing, both! The size of the armies you have, the table you play on and the game room are all enough to make the grinch green with envy.

Gunny Highway said...

James,
Great effort on your part to stem the red tide! Love the campaign, keep up the good work. One of my favorite favorites! :)
Respectfully,
Gunny

Prufrock said...

A Roman, A Roman! Another fine report, and what an exciting battle. That commander deserves a beer (or the Carthaginians equivalent...)

Cheers,
Aaron

fireymonkeyboy said...

That, sir, is a fantastic looking game!

BigRedBat said...

That's a lot of lovely lead, and you still have a space cabinet.

I've bun out of storage space; "Bugger"! ;-)

Simon

Sidney Roundwood said...

A truly spectacular game, with some brilliant figures. What a fantastic set up!

rct75001 said...

I've just got some of those cabinets after seeing them on your site - thanks for the inspiration.

Richard

JAMES ROACH said...

Richard

You will not be disappointed. Did you source the extra shelves. They can be a pain to find on the ikea site as they are not bjursta.

But to re-confirm, they are 76cm wide; the originals are 36cm deep but the last time I bought some they only had 34.5cm deep (they did do 36cm deep at one time). I put four shelves (total) in each section - giving 10 shelves and one drawer per cabinet.

JAMES ROACH said...

PS the shelves are only about £4 each - bargain.

Willie Anderson said...

Great report James looking forward to more!