A skirmish in the desert

 I've got quite a few Cataplanan and Vanha figures that have not yet tasted blood. Seemed like they deserved a chance. In this battle, the two sides are fighting for control of a desert oasis.

As a starter, few words on rules - usual make up as I go along to a certain extent. Everything moves at 8" except light horse (riders on -1 as far a combat goes).and flyers at 16"

Units fight as units or detached elements - as a unit, roll one die for combat, etc, treat each detached element as separate and rolls their own die. Detached elements have to stay within sight of main body.

Foot archers have a range of 16", horse archers and elephants 10". Ignore losing result if opponent not firing back.

Combat factors as per HoTT.

Beasts and elephants have a fear factor. Units attempting get within 4" of  a beast or elephant unit roll 1 die, roll 1 and must stop at 4". Beasts and elephants do not need to make this roll. Roll 2 1s in a row and a unit will not advance against that beast/elephant unit for the rest of the game! Incidentally, rather than beasts I should have made clear this includes things like flyers, dragons and other non-human elements.

OK, That's a basic outline. So the game:

The battle after the first move - nothing much happening yet and it's easier to take a photo with the armies closer to each other. The Cataplanans have sent the Griffons to occupy the oasis. Note that the Cataplanan pikes are being treated as a single rank! It just looks better having them on double depth bases.

Second move and things are getting sorted a bit. Both sides were set up with the infantry directly facing the oasis and cavalry, etc, placed on the flanks. In this case the Vanha left flank ended up outflanking the Cataplanan right. Because of this the Cataplanan right flank is being slightly refused.

A very slightly different angle... gives a slightly better perspective of the foreground showing the Vanha light horse outflanking the Cataplanans.

Meanwhile, in the centre, the first effect of that beasts rule... the Vanha foot rolled to see if they would move into contact with the Griffins and decided against it... they rolled a 1.

I'm leaving the post at this point. Next post will start with this round's firing.