David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Tuesday 28 March 2023

Toy Soldiers 0 Real Life 1

For this week's Tuesday game Phil and I had settled on giving the Medieval aspects of the new Hail Caesar rules a run through using our joint Italian Wars collection. Between us we could field four divisions replete with their commanders. Everything was moving along smoothly, Phil throwing his usual poor dice at critical moments, and a win for Cesare Borgia's army looking increasingly likely when we broke for lunch. Cue a phone call for Phil and a family health emergency and that was it for today's game: Real Life 1 Toy Soldiers 0... So, just a few pictures from the five moves we did play ~

The left flank of Cesare's army is held in place by the menacing presence of the Papal Guards to their rear.

The centre of the Florentine army is it's heavy pike blocks supported by halbadiers and swordsmen.

Cesare's Italian Light Cavalry menace the flank of the Florentine pike blocks despite suffering losses from fire from their flank.

On the left the Knights of both armies clash in a bid to carry the flank and threaten the enemy's centre.

The Papal army has the better of the combats, with two Florentine units fleeing the field having failed their morale checks 

With its left fatally weakened the Florentine centre falls back on the pike. Their right can make little advance through broken ground and exchanges largely desultory fire with their Papal opponents.

The scene after five turns with the Florentine left falling back in the face of losses and the steady advance of Cesare's right divisions.
As I said, real life intervened at this point, so we determined to replay the game in a fortnight when Phil will next be here in GHQ.

16 comments:

  1. A lovely battle David……shame to be cut short but that is the problem with real life 🙁

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  2. Beautiful figures as always, hope Phil’s crisis was quickly and easily sorted. At least the game holds promise if you are both happy for a straight re-set.

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    1. Thanks Norm, all ok thankfully. Rematch planned in a fortnight here in GHQ.

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  3. I hope Phil's family member is all OK now? Such a lovely game to behold and I look forward to it resuming/re-starting in a few weeks.

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    1. All ok now I'm told. Thanks for your support.

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  4. Beautiful troops, battle looks interesting. Glad to hear Phil has the better situation now. Looking forward to part 2.

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    1. Many thanks. Battle will resume in two weeks we hope.

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  5. Nice to see these troops out again and glad things OK with Phil.

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  6. It’s always nice to see this lovely collection out on the table David…
    It’s a shame real life got in the way…
    I am glad things are all okay with Phil’s family.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thank you Aly. They will be back on the table in two weeks hopefully.

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  7. Thank you for the kind concern chaps. The game looked more spectacular than the photos can convey, the game was developing nicely into a another whuppin for yours truly😂

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    1. Your dice certainly do not love you lately.🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲🎲

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  8. Interesting to see the Hail Caesar 2 rules in use Dave covering this delightful period. Wonderful looking figures as always! It looks like you probably got off lightly there though, as I'm sure Phil would have been on the verge of a resounding comeback! The dice can't be bad for all of the game.....can they? 🎲

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    1. His dice were much improved today, unfortunately...☹️

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