In late 2008, in an effort to get myself playing more games, I decided to play all 52 scenarios from Scenarios For All Ages by
Charles S Grant and Stuart Asquith. More than that, I decided to play them in order, 1 a week, starting on Nov 5. I knew I wouldn't
manage to play every week so I set a deadline of Dec 31st 2009. With a little help from my friends, I made it with a day to spare.

In the end, I played 52 games in 60 weeks. 34 solo games, 15 face to face games, 3 Play-by-Email mini-campaigns
17 other gamers from 4 countries participated, (Canada 11, US 4, Ireland 1, Argentina 1)

11 'periods' were played - 20/25mm Ancients (3), Prince Valiant 40mm skirmish (9), 40mm 16thC (10),
40mm semi-flat War of Polish Sucession (1), 40mm AWI (2), 40mm Pirate
Skirmish (5), 40mm early 19thC fictional (17), 15mm ACW (1), 25mm Zulu War (1),
20mm WWII (1), 20mm 1960's fictional (2)

I posted a brief report on each game on my webpage. I am shutting down my website so I am re-posting
the reports here, starting at Game #52 so that they will eventually appear in order. The reports were written in a variety of voices and tenses (sometimes all mixed together!) and it was tempting to rewrite them but I have left them as they were originally written with only very minor corrections, particularly to things like links.

To avoid copyright issues and save myself work, I have not given the details of the scenarios. Having a copy of the book will help make sense of the reports. The book may currently be purchased from John Curry at http://www.wargaming.co/ as well as from booksellers like On Military Matters and Caliver.



Monday, October 17, 2011

26 Feb 2009 Scenario 12: Fighting Across The River

This game was played between Gary McMahon using my 25mm Achamenid Persian vs his 25mm+ Assyrians using Warhammer Ancient battles.

We cut out a 6'x8' section of Gary's table to play this on. Looked like a verrrry long stretch of river to Rossius, King of Hants. My army consisted of 1 unit of 9 cavalry and 6 infantry units with 18 figures in each. I placed my Immortals at the right hand ford supported by slingers. Two units of Persian foot guarded the left hand ford, stretching in towards the center. Some Saka foot with bow and axe occupied a hill in the center while some Bythnian peltasts (javelin and rhompaia) and the cavalry formed a mobile reserve. The motley horde of Assyrians and allies came pouring through the gaps in the woods, cavalry, cart mounted archers, auxiliary warbands and skirmishers on their right, heavy infantry and skirmishers on their left.

 With 2 armies of archers, the arrows darkened the skies but as usual in WAB, to little effect, some skirmishers were chased away temporarily but no major units cracked. I delayed on planting my shield barrier in case I needed to maneuver but Gary decided to concentrate and come straight at me, counting on superior numbers to break my line and open a hole for his cavalry to exploit. Once his massed archers got in range, my unarmoured infantry started to drop alarmingly so I planted my shields and this miraculously increased their defensive value enough to balance the numbers (a questionable rule at best). As darkness fell, the Assyrian Guard Cavalry passed through their skirmish line and splashed through the ford to hack at the shield wall. This went on turn after turn with the Persian spearmen more than holding their own but the cavalry sticking it out. As the Assyrian center thinned, I brought up my cavalry and Bythnians and sent them across the river just as a massed Assyrian archer unit in the center broke under fire, taking the general with them. The Assyrians weren't coming across today.

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