Ancient History

I caught up with Gorillamo today. I was complaining that with all the time I spent on miniatures, I never got to game with them. He sympathised, and then we played games without minis. But still had a blast!

I played 'Lords of Waterdeep', and Gorillamo's wife tried to foil my plans but I still beat her. Despite this, Gorillamo quietly won. Then we played 'Pandemic', and died in a matter of moments as disease burnt through Asia.

The real winner of the day was 'Commands and Colors: Ancients', and we played three games. We refought Marathon (490BC) and Plataea (479BC), then swapped sides and refought Plataea.

In the first game (Marathon) I was the Greeks. I had a strong opening hand for a left flank assault, and pushed hard. Unfortunately, I was unable to achieve a break in, and tried to marry up with my right flank but was swamped and lost 6-4. Western civilisation would have been quite different!

Greeks face the Persians

The left flank surges forwards...

... but fails to utterly crush the Persian menace.

The Greek centre has been destroyed.

The left and right are able to meet...

... but by then it was too late.

In the second game (Plataea) I again took the Greeks. I had a powerful force on my left, and they drove the Persian invader before them. The enemy cavalry were deep in my centre, but could not prevent my 6-2 victory.

Greeks face the Persians again.

His cavalry charge for the gap in my lines.

My left flank crashes into his line.

He recoils,

and puts up a last ditch struggle,

but my left flank prevails.

Then we swapped sides, and this time the Persians and Greeks lined up more formally before clashing together. My right crumbled, and despite a valiant effort by my cavalry could not prevent a humbling 6-1 loss.

Persian setup

The lines clash

My right is decimated, but the cavalry put up a struggle

The crushing Greek victory

Here's Gorillamo's test paintjob of a 15mm Xyston early Spartan hoplite: looks really nice, but somehow lonely...