The World of Pikes at PAW Plymouth 2024
Alexander The Great vs ...
This year's PAW event was a 28mm, 4-game pike fest in the high age of Alexander and his successors.
The event also features a daily pasty, and some rather nice fish in Brixham on Saturday night
I had chosen the list of Alexander The Great, mainly on the basis that I have been painting up a 28mm Successor army in recent months and the Alexander army allowed me to use more of the figures I'd painted than any other option.
That meant a Death Star + pike centre, some more Pike and Thracians to occupy a flank and a small command of Companions to do that Companion thing - so pretty textbook really, other than the inclusion of 2 units of Medium spearmen because I had painted them
The lists for the Alexander The Great and all of the other armies in these reports from PAW Plymouth can be seen here in the L'Art de la Guerre Wiki.
So, with the rain teeming down in the beautiful jewel of the South West, the Honickle YMCA Sports Hall in suburban Plymouth, it was on with the games
Game 1 Alexander The Great vs Warring States Chinese
In this game the Alexander The Great's army hit the table for the very first time in 28mm, and of course only then starts to find out that it perhaps isn't as good as it looks on paper at taking on what is essentially a Roman army with the addition of noodles and Monosodium Glutomate
Will the ruthless efficiency of the Chinese forces and their mighty Heavy Chariots work to stem the relentless eastwards expansion of the Alexandrian steamroller, or will natural talent and the star power of an army being named after a singular general who I have chosen not to grace with the classification of a Strategist come to the fore?
Game 2 Alexander The Great vs The Syracusans
The second battle sees the pre-Successors take on the island kingdom of Syracuse, thorn in the side of both Rome and Carthage for many a year, even though in this game they do have a Carthaginian ally, but more importantly a very clever little scientist in the form of Archimedes who is using the battle to test out his new death lasers on an unsuspecting foe.
Will the fact these sun-focussing mirrors are almost certainly a nonsensical made up load of old cobblers harm the Syracusan cause, or will the power of sunlight burn through their murky weather outside to set the very tablecloth aflame as Alexander The Great tries to conquer the Med?
Game 3 Alexander The Great vs Lysimachus
The third outing sees the legendary Carpet King bestriding the South West like an Axminster-clad veritable colossus as he brings the falx-waving hordes of Thracian warriors under his spell to fashion an alliance between the Lysimachids and Seleukids to take on their ancestor the mighty Alexander the Great in a battle with two very similar armies on a playing surface the likes of which you mere mortals can only dream of
Will the Lysimachid machinations manage to fill the entire table with the sort of medium density weave rough terrain that the Thracians will know so well and love so much, or will the carpet not s much be rolled out as rolled up with The Don in the middle of it in Carry on Cleo style as Alexander seeks to assert his beyond the grave authority over these interlopers ?
Game 4 Alexander The Great vs Ptolemy
It's Pike on Pike full frontal action as the Ptolemaic work of Pikemen clashes with the Alexandrian world of Pikemen on a table just wide enough to fit all of the pikemen in both armies in a single line in which they can walk forward and start rolling dice
On a sliding scale of "1" to "Subtle this ain't" we are very much in the high digits end of the spectrum but if the troops look this glorious why not immerse yourself in Wargaming As Barker Intended and slap those phalanxes together and start rolling dice to decide who wins ?
You can see some of these figures being assembled and painted elsewhere on this site. That includes The Companions, some light horse and the Phalanx, as well as the elephant.
That's the end - so why not go back to the Match Reports Index and read some more reports?
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