Battles in miniature

Monday night, I ventured out to Steve's place to check out his miniatures collection. I've pretty much decided to paint my BL minis, and I wanted to get some tips.

Coincidentally, Steve had a mini battle all set-up, and we took the chance to go ahead and play out this little scenario. The center of both lines were phalanxes. I had some artillery to Steve's elephants. One flank had warbands and the edges consisted of some cavalry.

It being my first game, I was a bit bewildered by the stats and units, so I settled on a simple strategy: roll better than Steve. For most of the game, however, I was not able to execute this strategy.

After a few turns, Steve was up: I had 7 dead units to his 3 dead units. I considered resigning. Figuring it was just a learning game, I instead cried "Once more into the breach!" and carried on the battle. Well, actually, I guess I just said "these guys will attack those guys," but it's almost the same, right?

Steve's wounded units began to melt away at a surprising rate. His elephants finally broke through in my center, but suddenly I managed to pull out the win!

It was my first ever miniatures game, and it was pretty cool. Definitely a different beast than a board game, and a lot of fun.

Also, it's visually stunning. People often say Mare Nostrum has beautiful bits, but they are a pale shadow of a fully painted miniatures army.

Good times!