The omens will be good for the Spartans!

I am hoping that the gods will look favourably on my Spartan army now that we can sacrifice before battle.

A Greek Tragedy

The other day I got another of my infrequent game days in against Merlin.  I hosted this time, and we managed to get in two games, a Clash! game and a 1520 point KoWH game.

I used my newly painted, never before seen Greeks (with a couple of units of Scythian allies) and Merlin used his Spartans with mythological help from a regiment of Centaurs plus hero.

The Clash game was a straight up fight, with honours going to my Greeks.  My two phalanxes of hoplites gave me a strong core to my army, and along with the incredibly lucky chance of routing his cavalry early on, the game went very  much my way.

The two Clash! forces face off, Merlin's Spartans at the top, my Athenians at the bottom.

Merlin's Spartans (L to R): Light Cavalry, Kryptea, Commander, Spartiate hoplites and Slingers

My Athenians (L to R): Skirmishers with a Phalanx of Hoplites behind, Commander just peeping out from behind a second Phalanx and Slingers

Sadly, the dice gods deserted me then, that or my planning and tactics were poor.

We played a variant of the Loot scenario, since I had enjoyed it so much against T'Other One in KoW.  This time we were trying to capture, or save, three civilians.  Had it been necessary to determine an outright winner, one of them would randomly turn out to be a spy.  In the end, Merlin won so comprehensively this was unnecessary.  Alas, we wree so tied up in the game that I only took a couple of photos.

The game started with Merlin grabbing one objective with his Criptea Vanguard moving into contact with it.  One of my skirmishing units quickly claimed another, but soon lost it to the marauding herd of Centaurs, these, plus there hero, were a tough proposition, and thoroughly destroyed my attempt at a flanking maneuver with my Skythian allies.  On the other flank, the Spartan cavalry easily snatched the remaining civilian, and held onto him, despite running down a couple of my units plus my poor priest.
It was only in the centre that I really had any luck, and my three phalanxes held out almost until the end against Merlins Spartan king and routed all his main infantry.  Still, it was far too little too late.

A great fun day of gaming, and we both decided to do more KoWH.  it was, perhaps, a mistake to go to just over 1500 points; if we had kept it back to 1250 or so we could have fielded entirely historical forces.

We have both given a lot of thought since the battle to how the lists are built, and have, inevitably, drawn up our own lists in an attempt to reflect how we believe armies of the time were fielded and would fight.

Spartan Light Cavalry

Just completed some light cavalry for my Spartan army. 15mm Westwind/Forged in Battle figures.

More Spartans

I just finished a couple of new units for my Spartan Army, some hoplites and a unit of slingers. I thought it was about time for a group shot. I am really pleased with how this army is coming together with more yet to come.

Spartan Cavalry and a couple of photos of the Spartan army so far.

I completed two units of cavalry for my Spartan army today, so now I have actually painted more figures than I need for my 500 point force for Clash-our small scale KOWH battles.

I can't wait to get these little guys on the gaming table.

Watch out, the Krypteia are about!

So in KOWH you can only have one troop of Krypteia (a sort of Sparta secret police) and the sword armed Spartans from the Death of Leonidas set work perfectly for this unit. I bent a few arms to vary the poses a bit. So those Scythians had best watch out, these guys are pretty tough.

Spartan Skirmishers

My latest unit is a troop of javelin armed skirmishers. With only 6 figures representing the troop, these figures seem to be poised, ready to move against the enemy.

Crimson cloaks - Spartans are ready for Battle

Here are a couple of photos of the Spartans based and ready for action. Plus a rare rear view of Spartans, who never run away of course! Just to see their crimson cloaks.

The bottom photo show some of the Greek Myth themed 'Herd' army I am also painting.

Here come the Spartans.

My thanks to MisterC for letting me post some of my figures on his blog as we both work on a KOWH project. Here we have the first phalanx of Spartans, just need their base texturing and painting. Alongside we have a musician and Argilus, the Spartan Hero who will lead them. All 15mm War and Empire figures.