A reproduction late-15th C breach-loading gun

Here is our old beast in action at Flagstaff Hill, Warrnambool many years ago. It is a reproduction of a 15th century (Burgundian?) breach-loading gun. It had a 3" bore by memory and could lob a concrete cannon-ball a fair distance. Not long after these pictures were taken we found a retired Yugoslavian wheelwright who made us a proper set of wheels (it had borrowed cart wheels).

Note in the picture above that we were using horse poo for wadding (bottom right) very effective and gave the demonstration a certain ambience!

The Dacians take on the might of Rome

Tonight I took my newly painted Dacian army for its first walk on the park. They faced the might of Rome - and while my strategy had been developed with the Marian Roman army in mind (heavy with legionaries), my opponent instead opted for the Early Imperial Romans (legionaries and auxiliaries).*

I fielded a Dacian list heavy with foot troops opting for the dismounted general (4Wb), 6 warbands (3Wb), 2 elements of falxmen (3Bd), two skirmishers (2Ps), and an element of light cavalry (3Cv). The Romans fielded 5 elements of legionaries (4Bd) including their general, 4 elements of auxiliaries (4Ax), one element of cavalry (3Cv), one light horse (2LH), and an element of ballistae (Art).

The Romans were the aggressors and deployed their foot in columns between the woods on his right and a steep hill on his left. His cavalry and light horse deployed beyond the hill (out of command) on his extreme left. I straddled the steep hill in my centre using the following deployment:

[2Ps] [3Bd] [4Wb(g)#] [ 3Bd] [3Wb] [3Wb#] [3Wb#] [2Ps] [2LH]

(The Warbands marked with # were supported in the rear by a second Wb element)

The first few bounds were both sides well supplied with PIPs so both armies moved forward to clear the bad going in their deployment zones. The Roman general formed a line with his ballistae in his centre and auxiliaries supported by blades on his right and blades supported with auxiliaries (and his general) on his left. The Roman cavalry (Cv and LH) charged clear of the hill and menaced the Dacian right flank as the warbands and skirmishers marched down from the steep hill.

The Dacians general continued to advance clearing the bad going and recovering the cohesion of his original deployment. The only exception was that the skirmishers on the Dacian right fell back to protect the flank of the advancing warbands, while the clearly outmatched Dacian light horse (facing the Roman Cv and LH) charged across the enemy's front to seek some tactical advantage on the Dacian left wing.

The Dacian general's plan was to use his own warband (with another warband providing rear support) flanked by falxmen as the hammer to punch a hole in the Roman legionaries facing his left flank. On the Dacian right, a pair of warbands (again with two more in support) would similarly seek to punch through the Roman legionaries to their front. Light horse and skirmishers were to protect the flanks and limit the extension of the Roman line (particularly to the Dacian left).

The Roman general sent his light horse in pursuit of the redeployed Dacian light horse (see above). While doing so, the light horse blocked the arc of fire of the ballistae – shielding the Dacian line for a turn. The Dacian general took advantage of this lull in the ballista fire to begin his final advance to a point about 400 paces from the Roman line. His warbands began to chant and roar at the steely eyed legionaries to their front - this was the point of no return! Meanwhile, the Roman light horse had neutralised the advantage of the Dacian light horse allowing a unit of legionaries to extend the line on the Roman right (below). The Dacian general knew that he had to win in the centre to neutralise the Roman advantage on his flanks.

At this point the Dacian line advanced to within 200 paces of the Romans suffering only an the occasional disruption of the line by the returning ballista fire. At this moment, the Roman general, sensing the threat the falxmen posed to his ballistae, advanced his right and left flanks to contact – seizing the initiative. His two flanks were overlapped in the centre by the falxmen – the legionaries unable to fill the gap left by the ballistae – and, despite relentless shower of bolts raining down upon them, they held firm. The Dacians general knew this was his opportunity to grasp the advantage (see below)

The legionaries on the Roman left pushed the Dacian warbands back from their defensive line – although one warband stood firm cutting down the auxiliaries they faced. At this moment the battle hung in the balance. All eyes turned to the Dacian left would they hold? Could the Dacian general and his warriors hold their line against the determined Roman advance?

If the Roman general could look, at that moment, through the eyes of the carrion birds overhead, he would have seen his line crash into the Dacian left ... hold ... then falter. A counter-charge by the Dacian general and his warbands destroyed the auxiliaries to their front and charged to contact the legionaries supporting them. With this advantage gained, the falxmen to their left cut a bloody swathe through the auxiliaries they faced. The Roman right was definitively repulsed! The Dacian falxmen to the right of their general seized the opportunity to penetrate deep into the gap between the Roman flanks and fall upon the ballistae – their terrible curved falxes made short work of the crews allowing them to seize and neutralise these engines of war.

All momentum lost, the Roman flanks received one last final charge by the Dacian warbands – and before the result was known on the right, the Romans facing the Dacian left collapsed with an element of legionaries decimated by the general's warbands (see below). The collapse led to a rout – the Dacians took the field and, no doubt, exacted a bloody revenge upon the fleeing Romans.

So ended the maiden battle of my Dacians – a 4-1 victory in about 8 bounds. I could not have been happier with the result. The hammer blow of the supported 4 Wb general flanked by the two elements of falxmen was sufficient to bring about the collapse of the Roman line. However, much of this success hinged on the security provided to the flanks by terrain initially, and then by the the skirmishing troops as the warbands charged to contact. One wonders how they would fare against the Marian Romans - but that is another day and another battle!

* I was too consumed by the game to photograph it - so here I have reproduced key moments in the battle after the fact (NB: had to use a 3Cv gen. as I lacked a fifth blade element - it never came into contact so the element type is immaterial).

Medieval warming period

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/2000_Year_Temperature_Comparison.png

Enemies of Rome: Dacians finished!

87 CE: The Dacian general Decebalus marches to take up a defensive position at the 'Iron Gates of Transylvania' – a pass between the Ţarcului and Poiana Ruscă Mountains.

Enemies of Rome: Dacians BCE 60–106 CE (II/52)

The painting of my Essex Dacians is now complete. I have attempted to use more washes and shading during the painting process and some figures have come out quite well.

The shields posed a big challenge. The majority of shields use designs which are a simplification of images from Trajan's Column. Some are of my own creation. I find this fine detail work very tricky but from a distance I think they look OK.

Flocking tonight - more pictures to follow.

I will field them this Thursday for the first time. Battle report to follow.

Psiloi and artillery:

Warbands, falxmen, and mounted:

Next project: Later Carthaginians:

Here's how they start out looking:

The push of pike

Low Countries (IV/57c) versus Later Swiss (IV/79)

At last the mighty guildsmen of the Low Countries have proved their metal defeating the Later Swiss (4-1). While this was not a historical match-up it provided a great opportunity to bring two late medieval pike armies together. I'd not won a battle with my Low Countries having faced a number of encounters with the same opponent's Early Burgundians (IV/76) with his dreaded 6 x 3Kn that can dismount to blades. His Swiss, however, I met on more even terms.

The Swiss were defending in this game and deployed their pike between a steep hill and a mighty castle (BUA) which was held by their heavy foot (6Bd). Skirmishers covered the pike's flanks, while light horse sat in reserve to the rear.

The Swiss elected not to advance beyond this defensive position (a decision exacerbated by poor PIP rolls) and waited as my pike block advanced. My artillery also advanced on the centre-right, supported by crossbows and skirmishers, taking up a key position in front of the Swiss castle.

As the impending clash of pike loomed the Swiss sent their light horse around their castle to try and neutralise (or worse) the artillery. Skirmishers passed across in front of the Flemish gunners to try and draw their fire. The Flemish knights (3Kn) under the command of my general charged to the right flank to firm up our position and contain the threat of the Swiss light horse. At this moment the Swiss heavy foot (6Bd) sallied forth from the castle but found little room to safely deploy on their constrained extreme left flank.

The Flemish general, crossbows and skirmishers fell onto the blades and skirmishers (the light horse lacking room to deploy fell back behind them). The blades were soon surrounded and destroyed under the very walls of their now undefended castle. The skirmishers were also surrounded and destroyed.

Some well-placed shot from the Flemish artillery disordered the left flank of the Swiss pike just before the guildsmen charged their pikes and pushed ahead to contact. The fighting in the centre ebbed and flowed with both sides deploying their pikes in depth and the terrain offering little opportunity to exploit an open flank to garner advantage. A second body of Flemish knights charged in to contain Swiss skirmishers on the slopes of the steep hill that threatened to flank the Flemish pike but were bettered in the bad terrain (Losses so far – Swiss 2: Low Countries 1).

The Flemish gunners then applied their art to the mighty ramparts of the castle driving off the local levy that was left to defend the walls after the untimely demise of the Swiss heavy foot. With the Swiss left flank in tatters and the walls of the castle undefended all that remained was for the Flemish knights to ride through the gates and raise the Maid of Ghent from its highest tower.

Realising that the fortification on which their left flank was anchored was now lost, the Swiss pike fell into disorder and were routed. Victory, at last!

The advance of the Flemish pikemen viewed from the Swiss lines.

NB: Please ignore the horrid flocking on the pike - they hale from a time before I knew any better. This army is on the list for some renovation - or, indeed, finishing!

Somewhere north of Hadrian's Wall, c.300 CE

Picts (II/68 a) vs. Middle Imperial Romans (II/64 a)

It was late Saturday night, I couldn't get into painting, so instead I tried my first DBA game using the latest Solo DBA variant. I have played many solo games over the years, but not with the benefit of this rules variant.

The Romans rolled the lowest aggression score (becoming the non-player general (NPG)) so I styled this encounter as a Pictish raid on the Roman frontier.

For the purposes of this description I assume the Picts are deploying to the north of the battlefield and the Romans to the south. The random terrain placement rules saw a north-south road running along the eastern edge of the battlefield pass through a fortified Pictish village and woods. A steep hill was the centre of the Roman deployment zone.

NPG deployment resulted in a placement that looked like the Romans were leaving their marching camp in columns with cavalry (2 x 3Cv inc. gen.) and light horse (1 x 2LH) to the west (with the general), auxiliaries (3 x 4Ax) marching over a steep hill in the centre, legionaries (4 x 4Bd) and bows (1 x 4Bw) in a reserve column behind the centre and ballistas (1 x Art) advancing along the roadway to the east. (NB: One blade element should have been a 3Bd and the Bw I used only has two figures on base).

Initial deployment from point of view of NPG

The Roman general took a largely defensive stance forming a line of battle with his mounted troops on his left flank and moving the legionaries and bows that were in reserve up towards his centre. His auxiliaries moved quickly to occupy the woods on his right flank with support from the ballistas. Meanwhile the Picts advanced their line largely as deployed with the garrison of the BUA advancing towards the wood to restrict enemy road movement on the left flank.

With the legionaries still struggling through bad going, it fell to the auxiliaries on the Roman right to slow the Pictish advance. A Pictish warband slammed into the centre of the auxiliaries and a deep formation of spears supported by skirmishers (psiloi) attacked their right flank. Pictish spear moved up into the forest on the left to provide some support for the exposed flank of the warband. The warband was repulsed, but the spears took first blood by destroying the auxiliaries caught outside of the woods.

In the woods the Pictish spear advanced to contact with the auxiliaries that were overlapping the left flank of the warband. With its flank secure, the warband again charged forward to contact the remaining unit of auxiliary. The Pictish spears were destroyed being no match for the auxiliaries in the woods, while the warband pushed their opponents back and impetuously followed up their attack. The main Pictish line advanced with the skirmishers on the left flank contacting the Roman bows at the head of the column of legionaries – recoiling the column.

While the legionaries finally formed a line of battle in the centre, the previously repulsed bows let loose a storm of arrows that destroyed the skirmishers to their front. The auxiliaries on the Roman right flank responded by contacting the warband on its front and left flank. However the warband repulsed this assault and fiercely pursued the auxiliaries out of the woods. (Pictured below - Romans 1: Picts 2)

The Pictish centre and right advanced into close combat with the newly formed Roman line with light horse sweeping around to contact the end of the Roman left flank. On the Pictish left the warband supported by spears slammed once more into the unit of auxiliaries now in open ground, while efforts were made to secure the extreme left flank. However the beginning of the end was seen when Roman ballistas rained bolts down on the left flank of the warband causing it to recoil from contact. The Pictish chieftain and his light horse destroyed the Roman light horse on the end of the Roman's left flank but his centre collapsed with a unit each of spear and skirmishers destroyed and the remaining units repulsed.

End result Romans 2: Picts 4

Overall, I found the terrain placement, NPG deployment and tactical engines for the NPG very satisfactory. The Romans successfully played a largely defensive game with the exception of the auxiliaries rushing to grab the bad going on the Roman right – a manoeuvre acceptable for a defensive command according to the Solo DBA system. The Picts came to grief under my command largely through the poor match-ups (particularly psiloi against mounted and the spear against auxiliaries in bad going) and the rather impetuous charge to contact in the centre and right.

A very enjoyable game and one that certainly gives me great enthusiasm to explore this solo DBA system further.