Having played 2 games of to the strongest and enjoying the simple mechanics a third game was to be played. As with the other 2 games I was given the troops and just had to get on with it. The two armies in question were Ptolemaic Egyptians and the Classical Indians. I do not believe the two armies ever fought each other so I am not aware of any historical precedence. But just looking at the army lists it is EASY to predict the result.
I was given the Indians. Facing off against Dave. With Relfie on my right and Kev diagonally opposite. Dave and Kev the Ptolemaics and me and Relfie the Indians. before any of this starts sounding wingng I will say I did enjoy the game but understood and vocalised the result LONG before it happened. Anyone with any knowledge of ancients has probably already worked it out. Both sides had a lot of units and both sides had limited space and I could have deployed far better than I did so some of it is my fault. And I put my hands up to that. If I had been a real life general I would have chosen a better place to fight the battle which allowed for manoeuvre which was about the only advantage we had. Still sometimes you have to fight in areas not of your own choosing. So fair play.
All the dice in pictures represent remaining missile weapons that unit has.
I did manage to score the first success and killed some Ptolemaic skirmishers so the game was of to a good start. Now the classical Indians had some raw quality longbow archers and a good amount of ammo. However neither Relfie nor myself were able to cause any lasting damage on the pike armed phalanxes as they closed the distance. All that happened instead was that we ran out of ammo and while we did disrupt them they were able to re order their ranks and move forward without much difficulty.
My cavalry on the left were able to stop Dave moving down my flank and went into position on turn 2 of the game and stayed there as I tried to move elephants to support but due to them being hemmed in and poor card draws were not able to support them. Just as well they did not need my support. While they did fail to kill anything else in the game they did stop Dave from advancing. And were my most valuable troops despite the points indicating otherwise. I did manage to get some heavy chariots close to that flank but they were unable to assist because of the terrain and location of enemy troops.
Relfie on my right had also run out of arrows and replacing them was a struggle. The right flank did seem to see-saw a few times, mostly sawing on the Indians But Relfie was doing OK. Dave and myself were not quite in a stale mate position as Dave did manage to kill all my skirmishers and seize my only bit of defensible terrain.
But despite trying to win the raw Indians with only 2 wounds wer in the end just no match for the Ptolemaic's in pike blocks with better saves and 3 wounds. So eventually the inevitable happened and the Indians lost.
Congrats to Dave and Kev on their win and commiserations to me and Relfie but at least we delayed the inevitable for as long as possible.
Final result was 6VP (Victory points) to me and Relfie and 16 VP to Kev and Dave. Kev to his credit did offer to swap side with me when I stated a the beginning that the forces were not balanced which was nice of him, but what was the point, it would still have been an Indian Loss and a Ptolemaic win!
If we had room to manoeuvre we might have been able to attack the pike blocks in the side (Relfie did manage it once against the same unit twice but the cards did not favour him. ) But in front of me was just a solid mass of pikes and unarmoured bowmen would have trouble killing them in any set of rules when they are out of ammo.
I do not blame the rules or the army lists but perhaps we did have far to many troops in far to smaller area so (Not our choice although we could have deployed better). My first time in using that army and not an army I would choose to use again. The army match up was just not good and you could see from the start how the game would end. I am sure some players would have done better. But we did what we could with what we had and took a long time in dying. I am sure some players who know the armies better would have faired so much better and may even win. But that on the day did not happen.
Thanks for reading all the best Clint
yes today we have even more 28mm Empress Miniatures Spanish Civil war figures. And just like last time these are to fight the Very British Civil war, here in Kent. 
Weapons are again mostly rifles and a few pistols but there is also a soviet light machinegun this time which should give them a bit of punch and some more firepower. There is even a figure I have nick named Zabatak and no offence is meant by that (Front row centre in the bottom picture). 
SO today shows my first Socialist squad who Happen to be in Kent. The figures are all Empress miniatures from the Spanish Civil War range. There is also at least one Footsore miniature from the Irish Civil War range. Most of the figures carry rifles. There is only one with a shot gun while another carries a mortar. (In the SCW Mortars were VERY rare in the early stages with only 6 in the whole country. When foreign powers got involved many more did become available). We Need not worry about that though as this is a Very British Civil War and many of those who served in WW1 would have seen them or even used them.
I was going to write "Dead girls are Easy!" on the petrol tank, but instead settled for green flames. It was semi successful and a second attempt will no doubt prove a better finish so that is my plan, but with 8-10 Bikers to do they can not all have flames on the bikes, that would just look silly!
Yes one more very slight addition to my Vietnam Conflict project. I really need to get some games with that project this year. Anyway today is a 57mm Recoilless Rifle with three crew.
While the dead figure is by SHQ, (He had been waiting on my painting table for a good 6 months) all the rest are by Britannia. I bought the crew thinking the RR would be included but it was not. I remember thinking at the time. "Cor! that's a bargain" not realising the Recoilless Rifle was not included. LOL It all makes sense now. 
The basing is very simple as well. Starting with a 2mm thick MDF base just coated with sand and painted a cheap acrylic brown. Clumps of static grass and bristles from a wall papering brush make up the reeds. Simple yet effective. And one wall paper brush lasts an age. I have so far managed to do 1 15mm FOW Parachute company and both the US and the Viet minh in 20mm (1/72nd scale) and still have about 1/4 of the brush unused. So considering the brush was only 99p (at the time) a very quick and easy basing product. 
Thanks for looking today and I hope you are having a fantastic weekend!
As part of the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge participants are to submit a figure to Curt (AKA Snowlord) as a kind of entrance fee. The theme this year was gambler/risk taker.
I could not make a more dramatic wheelie as that would involve re-sculpting both the legs, and being honest I am a rubbish sculptor. So better just to not try at all on that. 
I cannot remember where I got the resin base but it has hung around for a number of years so was about time it got used. 
Having played 2 games of to the strongest and enjoying the simple mechanics a third game was to be played. As with the other 2 games I was given the troops and just had to get on with it. The two armies in question were Ptolemaic Egyptians and the Classical Indians. I do not believe the two armies ever fought each other so I am not aware of any historical precedence. But just looking at the army lists it is EASY to predict the result. 
I was given the Indians. Facing off against Dave. With Relfie on my right and Kev diagonally opposite. Dave and Kev the Ptolemaics and me and Relfie the Indians. before any of this starts sounding wingng I will say I did enjoy the game but understood and vocalised the result LONG before it happened. Anyone with any knowledge of ancients has probably already worked it out. Both sides had a lot of units and both sides had limited space and I could have deployed far better than I did so some of it is my fault. And I put my hands up to that. If I had been a real life general I would have chosen a better place to fight the battle which allowed for manoeuvre which was about the only advantage we had. Still sometimes you have to fight in areas not of your own choosing. So fair play. 
I did manage to score the first success and killed some Ptolemaic skirmishers so the game was of to a good start. Now the classical Indians had some raw quality longbow archers and a good amount of ammo. However neither Relfie nor myself were able to cause any lasting damage on the pike armed phalanxes as they closed the distance. All that happened instead was that we ran out of ammo and while we did disrupt them they were able to re order their ranks and move forward without much difficulty. 
My cavalry on the left were able to stop Dave moving down my flank and went into position on turn 2 of the game and stayed there as I tried to move elephants to support but due to them being hemmed in and poor card draws were not able to support them. Just as well they did not need my support. While they did fail to kill anything else in the game they did stop Dave from advancing. And were my most valuable troops despite the points indicating otherwise. I did manage to get some heavy chariots close to that flank but they were unable to assist because of the terrain and location of enemy troops. 
Relfie on my right had also run out of arrows and replacing them was a struggle. The right flank did seem to see-saw a few times, mostly sawing on the Indians But Relfie was doing OK. Dave and myself were not quite in a stale mate position as Dave did manage to kill all my skirmishers and seize my only bit of defensible terrain. 
The model was a 2 piece casting a white metal crewman and engine and a resin cast hull. A very simple paint job all colours taken from the picture at the bottom which is either fishing or trading. But during the conflict they might just as readily been ferrying supplies or people to the Viet Minh bases to fight the US troops. So they were treated with some degree of caution.
