Roll Call 2024 - The Hittites and their opponents

 This weekend I took part in the 15mm L'Art de la Guerre competition at Roll Call, finishing in a creditable 7th place with a Hittite army which was salvaged from the last knockings of Clive McLeods' collection. 

The army was painted pretty well originally, but had suffered a LOT of battle damage so the end result I think was somewhat of a demonstration of the power of repairing and especially rebasing. More of them can be seen here on this site in an article from a few years ago.  

Over the weekend I played against:

• New Kingdom Egyptians (won)
• Assyrian & Sargonid (won)
• North American Forest Indians (mutual break)
• Mayans (mutual break)
• Achaemenid Persians (narrow loss)

and all the army lists are posted on the ADLG Wiki, so just follow the links to see them there.

My Hittite list was rather driven by what figures I had ended up with, and was:

Strategist

3 Hittite Guard Chariots Heavy Chariot Impact Elite

1 Syro-Canannite Chariot Light Chariot Armour Bow ------

1 Hittite Warriors Medium Spearmen ------

1 Guardsmen Medium Spearmen Elite

1 Archers Bowmen Mediocre

1 Syro-Canaanite & Bedouin Light Infantry Javelin ----

==

Competent Unreliable

1 Hittite Guard Chariots Heavy Chariot Impact Elite

2 Ugarit Chariots Heavy Chariot impetuous ------

2 Hittite Warriors Medium Spearmen ------

1 Slingers Light Infantry Sling ----

1 Bowmen Bowmen Mediocre

1 Levy Levy ------

==

Competent

1 Scout Light Cavalry Bow Mediocre

3 Gasgans Medium Swordsmen Impetuous ------

1 Hittite Warriors Medium Swordsmen ------

1 Syro-Canannite Chariot Light Chariot Armour Javelin ------

1 Syro-Canannite Chariot Light Chariot Armour Bow ----

1 Syro-Canaanite & Bedouin Light Infantry Javelin ----

This list worked essentially an HCh delivery system, with support from the Light Chariots (ie HCv with wheels). 

My theory was that 3 Gasgans are as good as anything else they are likely to come across in terrain in a Biblical period so they would at worst always manage to fight their opponents to a standstill while the Chariots got into contact, and on occasions they would also be able to scare the bejeezus out of any mixed spear or mixed swordsmen they might hunt down and find. 

The Mediocre Bow are cheap and always sat between the 2 Spearmen in each command, keeping any enemy mounted honest with the whole mini block acting as flank guards for each set of Chariots, and doing a bit of long range shooting too in the meantime. 

Medium Spear are a fairly rare troop type usually, but they are decent enough in a Biblical period at standing up to most things, especially the Elite Guard unit. Standing to receive they even have half a chance against Heavy Chariots with Impact, and they widen the two blocks of Chariots considerably for anything facing them. 

I used the Armoured LCh to support the archers shooting, go into any MF alongside the Heavy Chariots, and I found in conjunction with the Gascans the 2 LCh in that command could often charge enemy infantry shooters who had been careful to stay just out of range of the Gasgan infantrymen but had missed the Chariots as a result. 

I was always prepared to commit the troops at evens or sometimes worse odds to pin an enemy in place so the Chariot strike force had enough time to arrive. With only 4 skirmishers in an army of 24, there is more staying power than it looks.

There was no real logic behind not having the Strategist with at one of the groups of Impetuous troops, bit was just a list I had cobbled together a couple of years ago to use these figures at the club a few times to give clubmates Biblical practice games - and as it had seemed to do OK, I hadn't really looked at it properly before submitting it. 

However in all honesty the Ugarit Chariots always wanted to go down the middle and were happy to charge anything anyway, and the MF Gasgans often found they were not Impetuous due to the presence of enemy mounted, so it didn't seem to matter much - and having extra pips for the Strategist command meant it could really motor across the table in wide flanking moves if needed. 

There won't be any reports from this one however - I have a lot of stuff in the hopper right now and I didn't think I could do this one justice so I only took a couple of photos... which are in this post. 

(and when I say I "nearly" beat the Persians, this is what I mean - the only time I've ever seen an army squeeze itself into such a tight space before this has been when their general has been packing them up  into the biscuit tin to take them home at  the end of an event!!)

Alicante 2024 : The Army Lists Video Podcast Thing

 Disproving the old adage that the best things in life are worth waiting for, the 100th episode of the Madaxeman Podcast thunders onto the airwaves with an epic, 6-handed special all the way from Spain, as myself, Dave From The Podcast & Aussie Simon are joined by Gordon, Revolutionary Dave and Mark to discuss and digest the lists we all used at the recent Alicante competition. 

This whole podcast is also available on the Madaxman YouTube channel where you can see pictures of the lists, some of the games and troops, as well as our tourism and eating exploits too.

The list covered are : Ancient Britons, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Mithradatics, Warring States Chinese and the countless  hordes of Aztecs, and all of this vague insight is shoehorned in among some tourism discussions, culinary observations, and frightning expose's of the contents of Spanish motorway service station vending machines - plus the first ever advert break to ever feature on a Madaxeman Podcast!

The video version allows you to see not only the lists as we discuss them, some of our holiday snaps, and in a Madaxeman first, little video windows of the people on the podcast actually talking (so you may prefer the audio only version...)

The army lists can all be found in the ADLG Wiki on the Madaxeman Website 

Iberian Airport Lounge List Dump

 As I'm currently sat at Valencia Airport waiting for a flight home, the joys of airport free WiFi have allowed me to bring you 7 all-new ADLG army lists from this weekend, with both my army and those of my 6 opponents already in the Wiki on this site.

Those lists are:

• Mithraditic (mine)
• 3 Kingdoms Chinese 
• Hittite
• Hebrew
• Kushan
• Alan
• Pergamene

FWIW, the Mithraditic army lost to the Hittites and Chinese, and then defeated the remaining four armies in this list. 

Before the competition Team CLWC undertook an epic road trip, taking in Cordoba and Granada before arriving in Alicante on Friday evening. 

With a following wind there will be a podcast with everyone in the car chatting about it, but here's some highlights:

Cooking up ADLG lists for... Fighting 15's

As regular listeners to the Madaxeman.com Podcast will know, Andy of "Podcast Quiz" fame is a longtime friend of Ian at UK manufacturer and retailer Fighting 15's 

(Late Roman Light Horse Bowmen from the Gladiator range)

Through that connection I recently had a request from Ian to see if I could help him in drawing up some ADLG army lists for some of the Gladiator Games range of 15mm ancients figures he now produces, so he could then use those lists as the basis for discounted, ready-made army packs.

The parameters were simple, yet intriguing - construct a viable ADLG list using some of the Gladiator Games ranges using at most 128 "figures" (as in, mounted count as 2 figures, foot count as as 1 each), ... and also make sure that the army featured the right multiples of figures so that they could also work reasonably well as starter packs for unit-based rulesets other than ADLG.

It was an interesting challenge which piqued my curiosity - and if the end result was going to be that ADLG gamers would have an option to buy some decent figures at lower cost and with less wasteage, what was not to like ?! 

In addition to designing these "128" figure lists, Ian then set me the exra challenge of coming up with "Booster" packs to add more options to the baseline starter lists... of course, these also had their own rules, which in this case was that they needed to be 32 "figures" strong.

Over the last couple of weeks therefore I've been playing around with the Online Army Builder to try and conjure up some credible, viable ADLG starter armies that keep to Ian's "128 figures" and "32 figures" parameters - and I'm glad to report that it is possible, and the lists and boosters I've conjured up actually seem perfectly reasonable to boot. 

Ian liked the work I did for him, and has now reorganised some of the Gladiator moulds and been busily casting up new batches of figures such that the first batch of ADLG Ready Made Army Packs have now started to appear on the Fighting 15's Website.

The initial two lists I looked at were Late Romans and Huns, which are now both on sale at £39.95 for around 128 metal figures - incidentally working out at just 31p per figure, one of the best per-figure prices for any current 15mm range (which listeners to the Podcast will know is a hot-button topic for us).

The first two lists to be finished are Hunnic and Late Imperial Roman 

The Huns:

A straightforward list to build to be honest, especially as the figures are extremely interchangeable - I took the view that the LH and MCv can mix figures and weapons with impunity, and as long as the HCv are visibly different to the lighter-equipped horsemen it all kinda works. This is how it all panned out;

• Hunnic list on Army List Builder  
• Hunnic list on the Madaxeman ADLG Wiki   
• Hunning Army Pack & Booster Pack on Fighting 15's Website

The Booster Pack also worked out well within the "32" limit, as that allowed the Gothic Foot option to be added with 4 units of hairy infantry including command figures, and the same pack works with the Late Roman army as well. There are also Herul and Gepid Cavalry in discounted booster pack that works for both armies too.   

(Hunnic command from the Gladiator range)

The Late Romans:

There are lots of ways to build a LIR list, some more unusual than others, but as a baseline starter army I thought that having a mix of Legions & Auxilia plus a decent mounted wing was probably the way to go. This was what I ended up with;

• Late Roman List on Army List Builder 
• Late Roman list on the Madaxeman ADLG Wiki
• Late Roman Army Pack & Boosters Pack on Fighting 15's Website 

The mounted wing is arguably a smidge over-sized, but is still a legitimate way to build out an army. Ian's requirement to also try and keep to multiples of figure types that wouldn't be too out of place in other unit-based rulesets is what drove the call on this front, however having a Roman list which isn't all Legions and Auxilia does make it a bit more interesting to play with so that's not a bad outcome anyway I suspect. 

The army list is written in a way which makes "32"-strong booster packs really easy however, so there is an option for 32 Gothic Foederate foot, and then another pack with a couple of extra units of Auxilia and Legions too. 

(Late Roman Legionary from the Gladiator range)

Meso-Americans are now also available I understand, and we're planning a podcast on some of the lists as well in the next couple of weeks - so watch out for those too! 

ADLG Army List Podcasts

The Madaxeman.com Podcast has covered the vexed topic of list design for quite a number of L'Art de la Guerre army lists in it's time, and, after a suggestion from a listener I've now pulled a set of links to all of these list-specific discussions together onto one page.

This listing includes both "dedicated" list-specific podcasts, and also the "Lockdown" series of podcasts where individual lists were compared and evaluated by the team.

The "Lockdown" Podcasts sometimes stretched to over 2 hours, and covered a lot more than just ADLG army lists, so for those just interested in the lists I've included approximate timings for when in each podcast the list-related discussions start, so you can skip straight to the list chat if you so wish.

Lists covered include: Late Imperial Roman, Uratu, Ugaritic, Later Byzantine, French Ordonnance, Achaemenid Persian, Later Assyrian & Sargonid, Ottoman Empire, Medieval Scandinavian, Late Imperial Roman, Fatimid Egyptian, Nikephorian Byzantine, Jurchen Ch'in, Later Carthaginian, New Kingdom Egyptian, Lydian, T'ang Chinese, Yuan Chinese, Venetian Condotta, Ghaznavid and Sassanid Persian.

Lockdown Podcast #10

With a frightening lurch into double figures (or a proper round dozen if paintbrushes and glue are your thing) the Lockdown team from Madaxeman.com are back yet again with the weekly soundtrack to a weekend of painting and avoiding household chores. 

As usual the podcast is available on Podbean, iTunes, Spotify and YouTube as well as other platforms where you find your pods.

Hot topics for tepid discussion this week include whether the best yellow paint is in fact Plague Brown, the Tau of Fire Hydrant Numerology, whether there was an aftermarket for refitting Egyptian chariots with go faster stripes and pumping stereos, how posh would a Samurai leader need to be in order to qualify for a self flushing toilet, whether Sisyphus would have been daft enough to start painting 28 bases of horses and how many arms per man do you need to make Fireforge's box of Mongol infantry.

The regular feature on ADLG List Building this week covers the Nikephorian Byzantines (in all its various modes of spelling), Andy's Quiz of course returns to help us all disco-down into the weekend, we talk in more depth about playing actual games on Tabletop Simulator, and a new feature is born in the shape (and theme tune) of Teaching Timmy About Napoleon, an idiot's guide to the Napoleonic Wars

Lockdown Podcast VII now out

The 7th Lockdown Podcast (and 3oth all-time Madaxeman Podcast) has now been published on Podbean and iTunes, and is already picking up a steady stream of listeners and regular subscribers on both platforms. It's ideal bank holiday listening for your weekend painting or legally permitted outdoor exercise session. 

This week the team discuss their latest painting haul, chat at some length about airbrushing, take an in-depth look at the Lydian army in ADLG and endure another week of Andy's Quiz Music wrapped around the far more acceptable Andy's Quiz.

Watch out later this week for a special one-off edition covering Paintbrushes !

 

  

Cold Wars 2020 - the ADLG lists

With the whole concept of tabletop wargaming agianst other real people fast receding into the mists of time, here are the L'Art de la Guerre army lists used by me and my opponents at the last event pre-Covid to be held in the continental USA, Cold Wars 2020

300 AP Doubles Lists

• Sassanid Persian
• Classical Indian
• 100 YW French
• Alexander The Great

200 AP Singles lists

• Sassanid Persian
• Maccabean Jewish
• Early Aechemenid Persian
• Graeco Bactrian

Match reports are under preparation as we speak...

2020 US Team Tournament ADLG lists published

One the the benefits of being list checker for the USTT is that I get to see all of the lists submitted by players - and here they are, as they have now also been added to the ADLG Wiki:

Folorn Hope

• Sierich 48 Etruscan : 25 Units 
• Shirey 108 Alan : 24 units
• Sikorski 187 Later Crusader : 23 Units
• Kelley 235 Burgundian Ordonnance : 19 Units

Midwest Muppets

• Jeff Herzog 19 Oman & Gulf States : 29 Units
• Richard Woolford 115 African Vandal : 25 Units
• Steve Roper 262 Siamese : 24 Units
• Al Ohtonen 235 Burgundian Ordonnance : 19 Units

Local Villany

• Paul Woolerton 17 Ancient Bedouin : 23 Units
• Jeff Robertson 107 Kushan : 22 Units
• Jeff Wiltrout 216 Jurchen Chin : 20 Units
• Mark Bumala  221 Medieval Scandinavia : 19 Units

Beltway Bandits

• Hazelwood 37 Spring Chinese : 22 Units
• McCampbell 121 Tamil Indian : 24 Units
• Zorick 184 Komenan Byzantine : 22 Units 
• Crotteau 243 Serbian Empire : 22 Units

French Connection

• Al Kaplan 23 Ancient Hebrew : 22 Units
• Nicolas Begue : 55 Carthaginian : 24 Units
• Tom Hazlett : 101 Romano British 25 Units
• Phil Gardocki : 235 Burgundian Ordonnance : 20 Units

Noodlers

• Hilton McManus 54  Early Cartho : 23 Units
• Steve Payne 79 Classical Indian: 24 Units
• Walt Burgoyne 121 Tamil Indian : 26
• Chris Johnston 227 Medieval German : 24 Units

Orphans

• Mark Cribbs - 64 Achaemenid Persian : 22 Units
• David Boor - 43 Ptolemaic Egyptian : 22 Units
• Dennis Shorthouse - 245 Late Byzantine : 24 Units
• Robert Nedwich - 224 Condottieri : 21 Units

Chuckleheads

• Bill Hawkes 8 Neo-Babylonian : 24 Units
• Mark  Kennedy 46 Graeco-Bactrian : 21 Units
• Kevin Swanson 172 Norman : 23 Units
• Walt Leach 238 Medieval Hungarian : 20 Units

Avignon ADLG Lists - more than half the top 10 !

Having just returned from a weekend in the South of France taking part in a 1-list, 200 AP tournament at Villeneuve Les Avignon, I'm pleased to be able to post the lists from the players who finished in 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th.  Or, put another way, my list, and the lists of my opponents all of whom finished above me in a 30+ strong field!

• 1st- Kushan
• 3rd - Ugarit
• 5th - Alexander  
• 7th - Galatian 
• 9th - Carthaginian
• 10th (My) Assyrian and Sargonid

As usual, match reports to follow at some unspecified point in future...

(Update 5/11/19 : 4th place Mycenean list (minimal chariots!) now also added to the Wiki)

Late Theme ADLG lists from Britcon 2019

All of the "late" period army lists, as well as the 25mm lists from this weekend's Britcon event are now published on the ADLG Wiki on Madaxeman.com.

That's 44 different army lists covering the following 28 armies:

• Anglo-Irish
• Berber
• Bulgar
• Burgundian Ordonnance
• Communal Italian
• Condottieri
• Free Company
• Ghaznavid
• Hundred Years War French
• Ilkhanid Mongol
• Indonesian and Malay
• Jurchen-Chin
• Low Countries
• Medieval German
• Medieval Hungarian
• Medieval Polish
• Medieval Scots
• Medieval Spanish
• Mongol Empire
• Normans in Sicily
• Ottoman Empire
• Samurai
• Siam
• Swiss
• Timurid
• Tuareg
• Wars of the Roses
• Yuan Chinese

The 'early' lists were published earlier later this week.

Britcon 2019 - ADLG Army Lists on the Wiki

All of the "early" period army lists from this weekend's Britcon event are now published on the ADLG Wiki on Madaxeman.com.

That's 19 different army lists covering the following armies:

• Achaemenid Persian   
• Arab Conquest   
• Assyrian Empire and Sargonid 
• Burmese    
• Christian Nubian  
• Classical Greek   
• Classical Indian   
• Early Imperial Roman  
• Early Successors   
• Han Chinese   
• Hindu Indian   
• Kushan    
• Maurikian Byzantine   
• Nikephorian Byzantine   
• Ostrogoth    
• Republican Roman   
• Romano-British    
• Seleucid    
• Sumer et Akkad  
• Tamil Indian   
• Thematic Byzantine   
• Vedic Indian   
• Warring States   

The rest of the lists will be published later this week. 

2019 L'Art de la Guerre Worlds - The Top 5 Lists

In case you've not already spotted it, I've now posted the army lists from the top-placing players in last month's 2019 Worlds from Rome on the ADLG Wiki.

The lists are;

1st - Yuan Chinese
2nd - Timurid
3rd - Communal Italian
4th - Ottoman Empire
5th - Khurasanian

The full placings from The Worlds are on the FIW website, with a complete list of armies on the ADLG forum. The Madaxeman.com Podcast about the Yuan list was published earlier this month - other may follow!

If you are inspired by these lists, here's a couple of very nice looking Timurid/Yuan style elephants from Donnington Miniatures to be tempted by as well.

Roll Call lists on the ADLG Wiki

The lists from the top five placed players in the 2019 15mm Roll Call period have now been added to the ADLG Wiki, along with my 25mm Medieval list, the lists of my 5 opponents over the weekend and a couple more.

15mm Lists:

1. Mike Bennett Sui & Tang Chinese
2. Hubert Bretagne Mérovingian Franks
3. Paul Johnston Christian Nubian
4. Peter Webb Christian Nubian
5. Clive McLeod Maurikian Byzantine

25mm lists 

• My WOTR Lancastrians (1st)
• Jurchen Chin 
• Swiss (4th)
• Burgundian Ordonnance
• Italian Condotta (2nd)
• Samurai (5th)
• Serbian (3rd)

Britcon 2018 ADLG - the winning lists

The ADLG Wiki now contains both lists from the top 4 placed players at the recent Britcon event, including:

1st : Julian Lopez

• Blemmye  (Won 2 Lost 1 Drawn 1)
• Medieval Spanish  (Won 4 Lost 0 Drawn 0)

2nd Mike Bennett

• Han Chinese  (Won 3 Lost 0 Drawn 1)
• Anglo-Irish  (Won 2 Lost 0 Drawn 2)

3rd Paul Dawson

• Nikephorian Byzantine  (Won 3 Lost 1 Drawn 0)
• Medieval Hungarian  (Won 2 Lost 1 Drawn 1)

4th Mick Hood

• Later Aechemenid  (Won 3 Lost 1 Drawn 0)
• Feudal Russian  (Won 2 Lost 0 Drawn 2)

There's also a host of other lists from other players at Britcon as well. 

Wiki Flurry!

With temperatures rising across the country, here's a perfect excuse to stay inside - a load of army lists added to the ADLG Wiki.

As well as all of my opponents from The Worlds recently, the wiki now also features the lists of the players filling the upper reaches of the final placings with Yuan Chinese, 100YW French, Ghaznavid, Seleucid and Arab Indian all featuring.

There are also lists from both Cry Havoc in Bristol (Classical Indian, Southern Dynasties, Rajput Hindu Indian, Ghaznavid, Nikephorian and Arab Conquest - including 3 of the top 4 placings) and from Conclave in Limerick there's Carthaginian, Sea Peoples, Later Achaemenid, Ptolemaic, Graeco-Bactrian and my own Han Chinese - meaning that all of the top 3 places are covered.

Army lists from my 6 opponents at The Worlds now published on the Wiki

The armies fielded by my opponents in the recent "The Worlds" L'Art de la Guerre event in Salamanca are now on the ADLG Wiki:

They were, in order of play

• Classical Indian
• Graeco Indian
• French Ordonnance
• Delhi Sultanate
• Christian Nubian
• Sassanid Persian 

My own two army lists were taken from the Alexander The Great list.

Battle reports are underway and being written... but here's some in-game pictures to kick things off... 

Two Armies, Two Podcasts...

With two L'Art de la Guerre podcasts now firmly under my belt it feels like an opportune moment to release them fully into the interweb by actually telling people that they exist.

Ideal to listen to whilst painting your own figures, in these two Podcasts (also available on YouTube, with pictures) are where you can learn from people who are far better players than I am about how to design a Ghaznavid or a Sassanid army list for L'Art de la Guerre.

The Podcasts are available to listen to via Podbean, also iTunes (honestly!) and are linked to from my L'Art de la Guerre page.