Five months is a long time to be away from the Wargames tabletop. When the local Gamestore re-opened, what better than reacquainting oneself with the gang and familiar surrounding? A first chance to leave home schooling and domestic bliss was not to be missed! 

We are so lucky here in Cardiff to have Firestorm Games. For years now, it has been a centre for gaming and it’s massive. After all my remonstrations concerning ‘face-nappies’ and ” testing- why exactly?”, I was here with mask and queuing for my temperature to be taken. My only resistance was my choice of t-shirt! ( still a little snug after five months of lock down!)

Big Don McHugh had made the journey to God’s acre and we intended to get our money’s worth; two games of two hundred points L’art de la Guerre in glorious 28mm. In Don’s case his forty year old veteran Lammings were true 25mm in reality so I expected a lot from my hulking great, and newly painted Goliaths. I shouted to the Fuhrer that I was off to playing toy soldiers and the echoing venom coming up the stairs took me by surprise. I promptly dropped a box of said toys and the miniature version of a Beiruit seafront brought tears to my eyes. Spears and bows came off worst but only four or five minis were beyond fixing. It did bring home to me how much more accurate my painting is now that I use painting lenses. Every cloud and all that……..

Zenobia would be my first opponent. The heiress from the desert had been getting too big for her ( thigh-high) boots and Aurelian (me) would be tasked with taking the upstart kingdom back into the embrace of the Empire. The mask was quite fitting for the Eastern Potentate but nothing, absolutely nothing, slows down the Don’s anecdote stream!

My hope lay in my legions. Not quite the powerful units of old but surely more than enough to defeat the desert traders and their deserter hollow imitations ?

The imitation legions made up the centre of the Palmyran line but the Desert Queen had invested heavily in ” kettle-men” and I hadn’t brought my anti- cataphract clubs!

My right wing horse would have to take on the Eastern cataphracts. This was going to be a big ask! Could my legionaries find a weakness elsewhere?

The brave Aurelian decided to lead by example. While the lancanarii were being ridden down by light horse, the Emperor took out his frustrations on the enemy archers and even then it took three turns!

The table was groaning under the weight of the enemy heavy horse but our Romans held their ground initially at least.

The Aurelian legionaries did much better against the mutineer Syrian legions and carved through tthe second line but it was too late. The Palmyrans had both flanks enveloped and the cataphracts were now decimating the Aurelian horse. Zenbia’s desert kingdom was safe and Aurelian would have to think again.

Within minutes, Don was setting up for his next slaughter fest but that will have to wait until next posting. Thanks for reading and I hope you too are enjoying the end of lock-down.