***STOP PRESS*** King Leonidas almost killed in Sparta vs Pyrrhic battle 294BC

The Pyrrhic army invaded Sparta in 294BC.

Steve A's Spartan hoplites and cavalry quickly advanced, trying to catch Guy's Pyrrhic invaders getting into formation with their pikeblock, but leaving the Spartan lighter troops sat on a hill on their right flank, far away from the main battle. 

The Spartan cavalry tried to get around to the rear of the Pyrrhic pikes, but a Pyrrhic ally force of Psiloi S came on as a flank march and disrupted their advance, whilst a small number of Pyrrhic pikes broke off the main block to hold them in place.

Meanwhile, the Pyrrhic mounted companions raced across the front of their pikes from left to right to try and help, but the rearmost element of knight in wedge was caught by the advancing Spartan Spear S, and turned to give battle. The rest continued into the attack against the Spartan cavalry.

In the centre, 'Spartan hoplite-block' met 'Pyrrhic pike-block' in a clash of dust and thunder, and the battle ebbed to and fro.

Meanwhile, the Spartan cavalry were slowly overwhelmed and whittled down by the Pyrrhic psiloi, pike detachment, and the Pyrrhic cavalry. The Spartan cavalry were eventually all destroyed in the last move of the game.

King Leonidas found himself in the front rank of the battle against the Pyrrhic pikes, and came within ONE PIP of being doubled and killed.

The game ran out of time, and Steve and Guy counted up their losses. Sparta lost 14ME's and the the Pyrrhic army lost 6ME's, so the Pyrrhic army was declared the victor (this time).

That said, if the game had continued, Sparta may well have won as they had a smaller block of hoplites and a lot of psiloi as yet uncommited.

The majority of Pyrrhic losses were psiloi O who tried to slow down advancing Spartan Auxilia S, and were killed off over three or four rounds.

Great game, with some of the usual healthy debate around long-forgotten DBMM rules and clarifications.😁

DBMM Galatian vs Seleucid

The Seleucids invaded lands occupied by the Galatians, a people from the Danube area of Europe who had moved south through Greece and into Asia Minor.

The Galatian deployment was unusual in having three commands layered one behind the other, the advance command being all mounted cavalry, chariots and expendables, and the two remaining commands being all warband superior.

The Seleucids had two commands set up side by side, each having a mixture of pike, knights fast, elephants, and expendables. The right hand command also had a small number of light horse out on the right flank.

The Seleucids struggled to advance quickly as a deployment mistake had been made, mixing mounted with foot, and regular with irregular. This gave the Galatian cavalry and chariots the time to move out to their left, turning inwards to face the advancing Seleucids, and creating a flanking situation.

The Seleucid expendables were sent forward and made inroads into the Galatian cavalry before breaking through to hit the warband command behind. Bizarrely the Galatians also had expendables which were sent to attack the elephants, but the Galatian expendables were wiped out in one round of combat.

The Seleucid right hand command became very fragmented where the Galatian cavalry threatened them.

The Seleucid right hand command sent a phalanx of pike forward to try and further damage the Galatian cavalry, which served to soak up the very few movement pips that the Galatians were throwing.

Meanwhile the main Seleucid army had slowly rumbled forward, and the Galatian warband commands also moved out to meet them, although the game was over before they made contact.

The Galatian cavalry command was slowly whittled down, not helped when the Seleucid light horse managed to get around and into their rear, and over two critical bounds the cavalry command went through disheartened and then broke. The Galatians then surrendered and the fight was over.

The Galatians had lost 12.5 ME plus their expendables, and the Seleucids 1 ME plus one expendable.

Sassy v Byzzy 600AD ish

Period: Ancients (books 2 & 3), Rules: DBMM, Players: Sassanid Persians - Guy and Robin, Early Byzantines - Ian and Adrian. Held on: 15th Feb 2010.


Right from the off I realised we were in trouble. My all-Cavalry left wing outnumbered nearly 2:1 in numbers and more than 2:1 in grading factor! All Cavalry led by Robin.

In the centre, I had arrayed my Blades and Bows which were opposed by Elephants and Auxilia.

On my right, Adrians command (a mirror image of my right) faced Hordes defending a hill and Light Horse on their far left.

The lines closed, but as my left and Robin's commands engaged, the rest of my army struggled to move ahead at speed. We held out as long as possible against their massed cavalry command, taking them close to disheartened status.

But it was densinted not to be a Byzantine victory. We were soundly thrashed. Although Adrian did manage to break the stoic Jewish Hordes on the hill. Oy-Vey.

A group of Byzantine rebels have sworn revenge and have joined Rupe's Moorish forces ready for his assault on Guy's Sassy-Nids.

Words by Ian.
Photo by Ian.

6mm Sarmatians - Part II

And here are some of the Cavalry and Knights.
I have run out of bases, so need to order some more to finish this lot off.
I have 1 element of Kn and umpteen Cv to do as yet, but they are actually quick to paint - which is a pleasant surprise as up until recently I was not overly keen on painting horses (in any scale). Now my technique has been finalised, it's much easier.
Obviously they're not as good most (especially Mr Baccus6mm and his chums), but they'll do for me =)

The Cavalry:


The Knights (based in "wedges" for ease of identification):


Final post on this blog will be the full army in all its spleandour...

6mm Sarmatians - Part I

I got an amry pack of Sarmatians from Baccus6mm for Christmas.
They were initially requested as an army for Field of Glory as I had hoped to read them over the hols. But things didn't work out (do they ever.?).
So, now I'm just painting them up and basing them for DBMM (or some other derivitive) to determine exactly what I have.
I started with the Psiloi as they were the easiest...








Then I did the Light Horse because they were easy too...





Next are a few bases of Cavalry, then I may have go at some Knughts before painting up a few Generals bases...