Mortem et Gloriam - Game 59 - 2023/04/21

 

Greetings!

After more than 2 years since my last game of Mortem et Gloriam, I have finally managed to play one! Let's hope it heralds the come back to regular battles.

Rob was my first opponent in 2023. For this battle I asked him to bring his veteran Mid-Republican Romans. Rob has just recently won a tournament with it, so I knew I am in trouble! But I also knew that he is going to help me to get back to speed after a break. And it is great to have a historical opponent too. 

We played Maximus at 10,000 points per side. This is the snapshot of the army Rob brought:

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 58 - 2021/05/05

Greetings!

In my first (and so far, only!) game of Mortem et Gloriam in 2021 I played against my usual opponent Paul, who decided that "New Year - New Army" is going to be his motto. After a few battles against his Muslim Indian Sultanates, it was time to fight against completely different enemy - Ottoman Turkish!

Paul chose 1400 C.E. as the year for his army so it was only 16 centuries that separated our armies! However, both empires controlled some of the same territories in their time!

What is also interesting in Paul's force is that it also had Serbian allies included. Quite a colourful army to fight against for sure!

Ottoman Turkish - Army List

Decade of Battle Reporting - 2021/03/27

Greetings!

Much to my own surprise, I have just recently realized that on 22nd March 2011 I posted my very first battle report. Back then I did not even think about what kind of journey I was embarking on. As you can easily imagine, quite a lot happened in the last decade. I would like to take the opportunity and recall some of the most interesting moments of that journey. I hope you will find it an interesting read!

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 57 - 2020/12/28

 

Greetings!

In my next game (and the last battle of the year 2020), I had a great pleasure to play against Dean (frequent organizer of various MeG events and a highly dependable provider of all things necessary for games via his fantastic Olympian Games shop). He was kind enough to bring the army of Armenian so that I had a rather rare opportunity to play against historical opponent.

What is even more interesting was the army composition itself. In addition to expected Cataphracts and Horse Archers, there was also contingent of infantry, mainly Phalangites and Roman style armed soldiers. That together created a very diverse and flexible force and here are the details of the army's composition:

Armenian (Tigranes) - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 56 - 2020/12/26

Greetings!

It happened that the next game of Mortem et Gloriam was a rematch! Once again, I was to face the army of Muslim Indian Sultanate commanded by Paul. I fielded the exact same army as last time but Paul was experimenting with different units available for this faction. This time he increased the percentage of the cavalry and based his army around TuGs of Turkish Cavalry. 

What is more, Paul included only TuGs in his force which allowed him to increase the break point from six to seven! As a result, I had to find a way to defeat an army that is more difficult to catch, has better shooting and would take more effort to break. Here are the details of the army Paul brought this time:

Indian Muslim Sultanate

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 55 - 2020/12/25

 

Greetings!

Who would have thought that I would need to wait for a year to play another game of MeG, yet alone write another battle report. But that's exactly what happened and in fact, I am very lucky to even play a few battles at all. 

I played this game against Paul, one f my regular opponents. It was more or less the time where we would normally be visiting Sydney for the annual event called Mother of All Battles (MOAB). I played one of the games against Paul last year and if you are interested, here is the link to the battle report from that game:

2019/12/07 - Battle 51 - 10,000 vs Josean Korean

This time Paul brought a completely new force: Muslim Indian Sultanate. And as his custom, tries to play with it for some period of time against different opponents and armies. Here are the details of his army:

Muslim Indian Sultanates

2019 Summary - Part 1 - Mortem et Gloriam

Hello!

Although 2019 is not over yet, I managed to finish all my battle reports and I wanted to use the opportunity that the break offers to reflect on the passing year in the context of Mortem et Gloriam.

I wrote a brief article about my experiences with MeG in 2018 (2018 Summary - Mortem et Gloriam). I hoped that 2019 would be even more eventful and I am happy to tell you that it was indeed!

I would like to share my experiences with other wargamers in all aspects that were related to this system. I will write a bit about my games, of course, but not only. After all, this hobby involves a lot more and I think that is also worth sharing and discussing. There are probably as many approaches to it as there are people enjoying this hobby. For me, sharing these experiences is one of the most important aspects. 

I hope you will find this article interesting. I also aim to pave a way to progress my hobby in a new year 2020. I already have a few ideas I would like to make happen!

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 54 - 2019/12/13

Hello!

In my last, sixth game of Mortem et Gloriam tournament during MOAB 2019 event I played against one of my most regular opponents, Stephen. Many battle reports were created after our games and most recently, Stephen's Romans were proving superior to my Seleucids.

However, for this competition Stephen brought another favourite army of his, Mamluks! I must admit that among all the armies present at MOAB, I considered this one the most challenging to play against. I have already witnessed first hand how deadly their shooting can be in one of our previous games. The army is highly mobile so catching it is very difficult. But unlike many horse archers based armies of antiquity, this force fights very well in melee and has a good break point of 5 too!

Here are the details of the army Stephen brought to the tournament:

Mamluk Egyptian - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 53 - 2019/12/11

Hello!

First game of the third and last day of Mortem and Gloriam tournament during MOAB 2019 was against both, a new opponent and a completely new army. This time I had a great pleasure to play against Pat and his beautifully looking Muromachi Samurai. 

Pat's army is almost finished but looks great already! I like his way of distinguishing between units under particular command. He has magnetised standard bearer with a different colour of a banner that he attaches to the front rank of each unit. In this way he can switch between commanders accordingly and it makes the units even more visually awesome! I wish I was able to take proper photos of his fantastic army.

I have seen a few Samurai armies but I have never played against one before. It was interesting to notice it is another army with as low breaking point of 4 as mine. It had fewer units too but mainly because all but one, superior cavalry of skilled Bushi, had 9 bases each. However, they also had mixed elements, with the first rank formed by superior Samurai and the rest of the unit comprised of Ashigaru.

Here are the details of Pat's army:

Muromachi Samurai - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 52 - 2019/12/09

Hello!

Second game of day two of Mortem et Gloriam tournament during MOAB 2019 event and I faced another Longbow heavy army, this time of English flavor. My opponent, Stephen, against whom I had a pleasure to play against before, brought the army from Edward IV English army list.

However, while Andrew's Welsh were very numerous but unprotected army, Stephen's English had more elite feel. Especially when you added these nice, little single bases of heavy armoured Men-at-Arms in Longbowmen units.

Here are the details of the army:

Edward IV English - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 51 - 2019/12/07

Hello!

In the third game of the Mortem et Gloriam tournament during MOAB 2019 event I played against one of my regular opponents, Paul. He was also very kind to offer me a lift to and from the event, which I am extremely grateful for! 

Paul brought a completely different army this time, the one I have never played against before - Josean Korean. I must say I did not really know what to expect. 

However, Mortem et Gloriam as a system allows even inexperienced player to assess basic roles of each units, regardless of the army and period. Hence, I decided to keep it simple and think about Paul's army in the generic terms. Based on that he had a very well balanced army with the shooting infantry that also had a front rank of polearm wielding warriors. He also added some more units equipped for ranged attacks alone. But he had a strong contingent of cavalry as well, with three TuG's of Charging Lancers and two TuG's of skilled bow armed horsemen. Here are the details of his army list:

Josean Korean - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 50 - 2019/12/06

Hello!

In the second game of MOAB 2019, I was about to play against Andrew and his Medieval Walsh. We have attended many events before but we have never had a chance to play against each other for some strange reason. Fortunately, this time we finally got the opportunity!

I would also like to add that Andrew is one of the heroes of the Australian Mortem et Gloriam community, as he is often the person organising the events. playing a role of umpire during those, keeping track of the results and making sure people know their opponents in time. For that I would like to thank Andrew and I am sure many players would do the same!

In addition, I would also like to thank Alvaro Erize from The Wargame Spot FB Group who donated a fantastic Arid Land Battle Matt produced by Cigar Box Battle Store. All my subsequent games during MOAB were played on this fantastic gaming matt!

For this tournament Andrew brought the army of Medieval Welsh. It is probably the most numerous army I have ever played against, with a break point of 9! Here are the details:

Medieval Welsh - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 48 - 2019/12/02

Hello!

As you have probably noticed by far, I seem to have one game against an opponent, then one against Stephen and then we repeat the sequence! 

Indeed, it is another one against Stephen as per my request, he agreed to bring his Early Imperial Romans again. Can I find a way to open that can of heavily armoured Legionaries this time?

I really like these games where the armies are relatively well matched historically. Hence I was happy that I was about to fight against Romans again, even if it is not an easy army to defeat. No doubt Stephen would do all he can to engineer favourable fights and not let my Phalangites to have only one-on-one melees with his Legionaries.

Here is the army Stephen had in this game:

Early Imperial Roman - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 47 - 2019/11/30

Hello!

In my next Mortem at Gloriam game I played against Leigh who is known for bringing a new army to play with almost every time we meet! 

It was not different this time either but Leigh brought the force I did not expect at all. The army of Angkor Empire with multitudes of Elephants!

Now I can tell you, that was a sight to inspire and intimidate at the same time! Truly impressive army as you are going to see on the pictures, even though they do not give proper justice to the magnificent looking army Leigh had. Before we go there, however, here are the details as I remember them. I cannot recall at this stage what level of generals Leigh had but he had 3 commanders total.

Angkor Empire - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 46 - 2019/11/27

Hello,

In my next game I played against Steve again but this time he decided to come back to his Early Arab Conquest army. I have played against this force before but it is still the army I find it difficult to fight.

The challenge lies in the fact that Steve, who is a great player in his own right, is in particular well versed in the use of this faction. The great thing about such challenges, however, is that it is a guarantee I can learn something new and valuable.

Steve's army did not change much since the last time I played against this faction and here are the details:

Early Arab Conquest - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 45 - 2019/11/23

Hello!

In the next game I played against another of my regular opponents, Paul. He decided to bring his Bosporan army with Sarmatian allies for a re-match. There were some interesting changes in his army list, even if it didn't change much visually in comparison to our last encounter.

In general, as before, Paul's army was mainly cavalry with a few units of infantry. However, this time Paul increased the number of bases per unit in some cases and took better quality troops in another. I was obviously curious how would that change the way I would need to respond to this, technically already known, threat.

Here are the details of the army Paul brought for this game:

Bosporan - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 44 - 2019/11/16

Hello!

I am quite lucky that there is a dedicated group of Mortem et Gloriam players in Canberra so finding the opponent for a game is not a problem at all. If only I had more time to play! :)

We also knew that another event is coming in a couple of months, MOAB (Mother Of All Battles) so it was good to keep playing. Some tried new armies, I simply needed continuous practice with my trusty Seleucids.  

Stephen was toying with his Early Imperial Romans as his dreaded Mamluks were not yet ready. I was very happy with such match up because games where Phalanx is fighting Legion are always interesting.

Stephen decided to take the following:

Early Imperial Roman - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 43 - 2019/11/03

Hello,

In the last round of the Mortem et Gloriam tournament during WinterCon 2019, I had a great pleasure to play against Carl who this time commanded the army of Late Republican Romans.

I would also like to apologise the readers and Carl in particular for such a delay in preparing this battle report. It was never my intention to allow for this but unfortunately it happened. I hope I will be able to meet my own deadlines much better in the future. At the moment I am still catching up with quite a few battle reports. I do hope, however, they will be entertaining and worth reading, even if published later than planned.

I have played against Carl a few times already and it started to become a tradition that we meet each other in the last round of the events we attend. Fortunately for me, Carl usually brings a brand new army to each tournament. So I always have the opportunity to play against a different foe. This time was unique, because I was about to fight against Julius Caesar himself at the head of his dreaded Xth Legion!

Here are the details of the army Carl brought to the tournament.

Late Republican Roman - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 42 - 2019/10/12

Hello!

During the second day of the WinterCon 2019 and third round of the Mortem at Gloriam tournament, I played against the army of Early Sassanid Persians commanded by Steve.

I have played against Steve many times already and I know him as a formidable opponent. I often learn hard lessons in our battles too! 

It was, however, the very first time when I played against Sassanid Persians. This army intrigues me a lot, mainly due to my interest in the period of history that put them as main enemies to Byzantine Empire. 

I was thus very curious how an army of such an opponent would look like and fight. Here are the details of the army composition Steve brought to the tournament:

Early Sassanid Persians - Army List

Mortem et Gloriam - Game 41 - 2019/09/30

Hello!

In the second round of the tournament during WinterCon 2019 I played against Phil. Last time we played against each other (a few months ago during Ascending Valhalla event) he played with Alexandrian Macedonian. This time, however, Phil decided to bring Early Imperial Romans with some Armenian allies. Excellent!

For some reason I consider Romans as the primary enemy for my Seleucids. I thus find it always exciting to play against any flavor of the Roman force. Even in the frame of this faction, there are a lot of options and variations so there is a guarantee there will be no two armies alike. Phil's force was definitely a good example, especially with allied contingent of Armenian cavalry.

Here are the details:

Early Imperial Romans - Army List