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[Writeup by Mark, Pictures by Russel]

No Gold for the Gauls….

-Barbarian Hordes vs African Spears


It was the biggest battle yet played by us (or me) in field of glory: 1,250 points per side.



..and we played it to conclusion in just over three hours, with five people, two of whom had never played the rules before.


A Gallic chariot army with Gallic Hill Tribe and Ligurian Allies came down along the coast into Carthaginian Spain…they were met by an early Carthaginian Army with its Numidian Allies.


19 units in the Carthaginian force; 17 in the Gallic;


The Gauls came down with the Ligurian warbandss and light infantry (Jack) along the coast, working through some messy ground of forests, hills and rocks. Supporting them were the Gallic cavalry.



In the middle, the open plain, was the main body of Gauls: three chariots, the heavy warbands and soldurrii. (Mark)


On the right, by the foothills of the mountains, the Gallic allies (Bob), with a chariot, cavalry and two protected warbands.


Russell took the Carthaginian center: the sacred band, three African spears, the campanian and greek mercenary spears, the Corsican medium infantry light spears, the Moorish javelins and the baeleric slingers. Ed took the two flanks: the Carthaginian right along the coast (Spanish scutari, Carthaginian heavy chariots, cavalry and a unit of light horse) and the Numidian allies at the foothills…Lots of light horse, light foot and a unit of elephants.




The Gauls had to break through (or break) the Carthaginians to win, as their goal was to raid into Spain (for the raid in Spain is mainly in the plain). The plan was to pin the Carthaginian center with the Gallic infantry, while sweeping both flanks with the allies.

The Carthaginians reacted to this quite solidly.


Russell marched forward in columns and shook his drilled spears out into a solid battle line. Mark faced off against that with the barbarian heavy infantry, holding back out of charge range until the flank forces moved up. Bob advanced into a sea of light troops, desperately trying to wade forward and bring someone to battle….his only real fight was his cavalry against the elephants….a seesaw fight which, with a bit of Bob luck, he won…those elephants, however, were to be the only Carthaginian unit to fall that day…


Bob did get his chariots deep into the Numidian lines, but like a wagon train attacked by red Indians in the old west, it was hit by fire on every side, and eventually routed….



Bob, however, did not lose a single base in combat or fire….


The attack, however, got nowhere. It just could not flank the main Carthaginian line, getting so bogged down by the swirling tides of light troops.


….and Russell also moved the sacred band, the best infantry on the field, over to be the linchpin between the Numidians and the Carthaginian center.



On the other flank, Jack slogged through the bad terrain and rode his cavalry up a hill overlooking the Carthaginian right. Ed charged his scutarri uphill against the cavalry. Cavalry had the high ground, but were disordered by the rough ground, the cavalry bounced off the infantry. Ed took the top of the hill; jack came back with the cavalry and a warband…his other cavalry did get past them to fight the Carthaginian cavalry behind the hill…



But that was jack’s high water mark – the cavalry on the hill again bounced off the scutari, and in the cavalry vs cavalry battle, he twice failed death rolls, leaving him outbased 6 to 4….in the meantime, on the far side of his line, a unit of light infantry lost a missile fight with light cavalry in the woods, and was then caught in the rear and routed by the Carthaginian light horse.


The real disaster for the Gauls, however, came in the center.


The light chariots charged the heavy chariots, and although outnumbering them, could make no progress. One unit of light chariots broke and ran; another died in a long melee.



The heavy infantry charged: of three warbands, one routed and was caught and eliminated by an African spear unit, another died in place in a fight with the Campanian mercenaries. The one in the center had knocked the African Spear it faced to fragmented, but now found itself without support on either flank…..as the Soldurrii moved up to face off one African spear, the other was swinging around….



By now we had been fighting for three hours. The Carthaginians had one unit dead (elephants) and one fragmented (African spears). Three points lost of their 19.

The Gauls had three units dead and three routing…12 points of their 17…another unit (Jack’s cavalry) was most likely going to die in two turns, and in the center two heavies facing three meant one at least was going to be hit in flank…and there were more Carthaginians coming up. Bob, his chariots routing, was going nowhere.


The Gauls agreed it was time to go home…defeated soundly 12 to 3…..


The game was huge, and on a 10 foot table there was still plenty of maneuver space for the 15mm armies. A grand spectacle of two lines coming together, battling and then one evaporating and streaming back…

Nice report and great photos, thanks for adding it. 15mm is fast becoming my favourite scale at the moment. Who are the manufacturers of these armies?

glad you liked the figures


most of the figures are battle honors, a few of the special figures (like queen boudica in her chariot, the gallic general holding a severed head) are corvus belli. and some of them are really old (20-30 years) minifigs...

I had not painted any 15mm ancients for at least 12-15 years, until we started playing Field of Glory last summer. Then i took my old wrg/dba armies as the starting point...in eight months went from barely enough to field a pair of starter armies (600 pts each of romans and carthaginians) to fill three triplelayer cases of figures...the 2,500 points of troops above are all mine (except for one general and one infantry unit of ed's -- he has thousands of 28mm figures, i'm the 15mm guy in our club).

15mm figures are cheap, paint up quite fast, store and travel easily and let you have more maneuver room on the table. although 28s are gorgeous, they are expensive, harder to paint and take up more storage and gaming room....but on a big table they are magnificent.

the other advantage to 15mm is that from a distance you don't notice the individual figures as much, so the fact that some of the Gallic armored cavalry are romans, or that there are a few legionaires mixed in with the carthaginian spears, is not as important or as obvious as it is in 28mm.

that said, almost everything on the table was the right figure with the right paint job

the gallic chariots, with two exceptions, were all gallic or british chariots, and all of the barbarian infantry were gauls, britons or spanish --- the 'solduri' i had to use some byzantines for - and the gallic javelins were gauls, and the gallic cavalry was a mix of gauls and germans.

the carthaginians had african spears, campanian mercenaries, greek mercenary hoplites and carthaginian heavy chariots, numidian javelins, numidian light horse, baeleric slingers and spanish scutari....only a very few roman legionaires just to flesh out a couple of 6 base units to 8 base size....and i did run out of numidian javelinmen, so some velites had to take their place...

but in 15mm scale, you don't notice those subtleties as much as in 28....

Thanks for the info. I am quite fond of a lot of the Corvus Belli stuff. How long did the game take in all at 1250 points?

I know it's a bit of a thread resurrection, but a game of this size was completed in uder 3 hours.

Awesome Report.

I've been trying to get started with FOG since 1.5 years ago...

Not many locals are playing FOG

inquisitor_bob wrote:Awesome Report.

I've been trying to get started with FOG since 1.5 years ago...

Not many locals are playing FOG

What part of the country are you in?