It's that time again! More all day wargaming in the West Country. Alas we were down one from the normal crew as Phil was off talking about the Battle of Naseby to local Primary School children.
As it was Richard's turn to host he put on the first game. He did another Roman supply ambush game, using a Dux Bellorum variant and some random Briton generation mechanism this time.
I had the Romans and had to get a convoy of wagons from the far end through to the gate of the fort.
I had quite a lot of good stuff to see me through. Gary and Chris A were the Britons.
I put my cavalry out ahead and alternated my foot either side, auxilia types to the front, legionaries to the rear.
The first Britons appear and head for the hill top. I aim to run them down with my cavalry before they get there. The loose officer type figures represent the allocation of command points, rather than using counters. First round I inflict a lot of damage and disorder the Britons. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, next turn despite me having all the advantages I inflict no damage and take a several hits.
I stayed in contact as the odds were still very much in my favour. Alas some spectacular dice rolling by Gary saw me off without breaking sweat. That was a surprise.
More Britons have appeared so I've been forced to deploy a bit early, due to the loss of my cavalry. I'm also pinned in my half of the table, so I can't trigger the relief column from the fort.
On my right I get charged by some warband. I hold them easily.
My archers on the left exchange shots with Gary's slingers. I push my left hand legionaries up to trigger an attack by Gary's severely weakened warband.
Chariots pile into my Auxilia, who actually handle it rather well, inflicting a lot of damage, but not enough to break them.
Much to my surprise a warband storms through the wood without slowing down or suffering any adverse effects. I'm unable to block them, due to my loss of cavalry, so they start to trash the wagons.
Unbelievably my left hand legionaries are unable to inflict the single hit needed to break the opposing warband, and in fact lose the combat overall. By now I've scared off the slingers and am able to bring my archers back to defend the wagons.
The Britons in the middle move onto their second wagon. Once more I fail to break those pesky damaged warbands. Of course loss of the cavalry meant loss of a command point, so I'm playing a bit of catch-up. Plus I'm also losing the initiative rolls, which isn't helping either.
And would you believe it I lose my legionaries. Three turns and all they needed to do was win one round of combat and inflict one hit. Instead, three straight loses and off they go.
My auxilia are likewise only one hit off breaking the chariots, but it just won't come, and I'm caught in the flank as well now.
The warband charge the archers and we have mutual destruction. Ho hum. Another wagon goes.
And then I lose the right hand warband/legionary combat and the auxilia fail to break the chariots. Game over for me.
That was probably the most comprehensive loss I have ever suffered in an ancients game since I played Steve "Meth the Merciless" Metheringham at Armati up at Derby many years ago. Unlike that latter game I don't think I put a single foot wrong in this one. I just got completely killed by the dice.
Richard felt that he might have got too many command points in the game, and the Briton ability to switch them between independent commands stacked the odds against me a bit. Richard's game plan, I think, was that the Roman units would mostly see off one Briton unit each, then face a second one once it was weakened, making it all a bit more touch and go. Never happened. It might also have been that the table was too long for the movement distances, and Dux Bellorum might not be the best set of rules for this period of warfare.
Anyway, enough moaning. It was a good game and I enjoyed it.
After lunch Gary put on a naval game with a scenario he'd written. This is a first for him. He went for some 1820's anti-slavery action, with the "Black Joke" and "Fair Rosalind" trying to capture some slavers as they attempt to slip out of a West African estuary.
Gary had put a lot of thought and work into this, although not completely finished. The islands are made from expanding filler foam, and he's got felt as sand banks.
We're using Fighting Sail, modified. Gary has put in a mechanism for "phantom ships", dummies represented by bits of paper to help with the hidden movement needed to make this work.
Chris & I were the slavers, Richard and Gary the noble RN. We split up either side of Current Croissant Island. Chris didn't know which ones were the real ships, as I didn't tell him.
Oh no! We're spotted! We were improvising a bit now, as the original idea didn't quite work
Then our second ship was spotted. We're out in the open, caught trying to sneak up a narrow channel.
The RN have us covered. Not looking good. The wind favours the RN, so tacking out of this corner is proving a bit of a challenge.
Richard points out an error his colleague has made.
The Black Joke exchanges fire with a slaver. The RN are firing at rigging so they don't injure any slaves. Gary has this victory point mechanism that punishes the RN for killing rather than rescuing the slaves.
It looks like Chris' ship has been caught, so I turn about and head back round the island.
Chris is grappled and boarded.
Richard turns up to observe the capture of the first slaver. Can I get away?
Well, no. I'm chased down by the Black Joke. She opens fire and hits my rigging, which causes a critical hit. This then rolls up into a more serious hit and I catch fire and start to sink. My crew abandon ship and row off, leaving the shackled slaves to their fate.
Once the points are totalled up it seems its a draw. Gary starts muttering about changing the critical hit rules.
A really interesting and challenging game, and fun too. The scenario needs some work on it, but with a few modifications its well worth playing again. Well done to Gary for ships, scenery and scenario.
We were then going to play a game of Taiping Era, but we sort of ran out of time. I talked people through how it is supposed to work, then we went down the pub for dinner.
Another satisfactory day of wargaming.
As it was Richard's turn to host he put on the first game. He did another Roman supply ambush game, using a Dux Bellorum variant and some random Briton generation mechanism this time.
I had the Romans and had to get a convoy of wagons from the far end through to the gate of the fort.
I had quite a lot of good stuff to see me through. Gary and Chris A were the Britons.
I put my cavalry out ahead and alternated my foot either side, auxilia types to the front, legionaries to the rear.
The first Britons appear and head for the hill top. I aim to run them down with my cavalry before they get there. The loose officer type figures represent the allocation of command points, rather than using counters. First round I inflict a lot of damage and disorder the Britons. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, next turn despite me having all the advantages I inflict no damage and take a several hits.
I stayed in contact as the odds were still very much in my favour. Alas some spectacular dice rolling by Gary saw me off without breaking sweat. That was a surprise.
More Britons have appeared so I've been forced to deploy a bit early, due to the loss of my cavalry. I'm also pinned in my half of the table, so I can't trigger the relief column from the fort.
On my right I get charged by some warband. I hold them easily.
My archers on the left exchange shots with Gary's slingers. I push my left hand legionaries up to trigger an attack by Gary's severely weakened warband.
Chariots pile into my Auxilia, who actually handle it rather well, inflicting a lot of damage, but not enough to break them.
Much to my surprise a warband storms through the wood without slowing down or suffering any adverse effects. I'm unable to block them, due to my loss of cavalry, so they start to trash the wagons.
Unbelievably my left hand legionaries are unable to inflict the single hit needed to break the opposing warband, and in fact lose the combat overall. By now I've scared off the slingers and am able to bring my archers back to defend the wagons.
The Britons in the middle move onto their second wagon. Once more I fail to break those pesky damaged warbands. Of course loss of the cavalry meant loss of a command point, so I'm playing a bit of catch-up. Plus I'm also losing the initiative rolls, which isn't helping either.
And would you believe it I lose my legionaries. Three turns and all they needed to do was win one round of combat and inflict one hit. Instead, three straight loses and off they go.
My auxilia are likewise only one hit off breaking the chariots, but it just won't come, and I'm caught in the flank as well now.
The warband charge the archers and we have mutual destruction. Ho hum. Another wagon goes.
And then I lose the right hand warband/legionary combat and the auxilia fail to break the chariots. Game over for me.
That was probably the most comprehensive loss I have ever suffered in an ancients game since I played Steve "Meth the Merciless" Metheringham at Armati up at Derby many years ago. Unlike that latter game I don't think I put a single foot wrong in this one. I just got completely killed by the dice.
Richard felt that he might have got too many command points in the game, and the Briton ability to switch them between independent commands stacked the odds against me a bit. Richard's game plan, I think, was that the Roman units would mostly see off one Briton unit each, then face a second one once it was weakened, making it all a bit more touch and go. Never happened. It might also have been that the table was too long for the movement distances, and Dux Bellorum might not be the best set of rules for this period of warfare.
Anyway, enough moaning. It was a good game and I enjoyed it.
After lunch Gary put on a naval game with a scenario he'd written. This is a first for him. He went for some 1820's anti-slavery action, with the "Black Joke" and "Fair Rosalind" trying to capture some slavers as they attempt to slip out of a West African estuary.
Gary had put a lot of thought and work into this, although not completely finished. The islands are made from expanding filler foam, and he's got felt as sand banks.
We're using Fighting Sail, modified. Gary has put in a mechanism for "phantom ships", dummies represented by bits of paper to help with the hidden movement needed to make this work.
Chris & I were the slavers, Richard and Gary the noble RN. We split up either side of Current Croissant Island. Chris didn't know which ones were the real ships, as I didn't tell him.
Oh no! We're spotted! We were improvising a bit now, as the original idea didn't quite work
Then our second ship was spotted. We're out in the open, caught trying to sneak up a narrow channel.
The RN have us covered. Not looking good. The wind favours the RN, so tacking out of this corner is proving a bit of a challenge.
Richard points out an error his colleague has made.
The Black Joke exchanges fire with a slaver. The RN are firing at rigging so they don't injure any slaves. Gary has this victory point mechanism that punishes the RN for killing rather than rescuing the slaves.
It looks like Chris' ship has been caught, so I turn about and head back round the island.
Chris is grappled and boarded.
Richard turns up to observe the capture of the first slaver. Can I get away?
Well, no. I'm chased down by the Black Joke. She opens fire and hits my rigging, which causes a critical hit. This then rolls up into a more serious hit and I catch fire and start to sink. My crew abandon ship and row off, leaving the shackled slaves to their fate.
Once the points are totalled up it seems its a draw. Gary starts muttering about changing the critical hit rules.
A really interesting and challenging game, and fun too. The scenario needs some work on it, but with a few modifications its well worth playing again. Well done to Gary for ships, scenery and scenario.
We were then going to play a game of Taiping Era, but we sort of ran out of time. I talked people through how it is supposed to work, then we went down the pub for dinner.
Another satisfactory day of wargaming.
Indeed another fine day of wargaming, and I look forward to sampling the Taiping in due course.
ReplyDeleteI think you right about too many and certainly too flexible leadership points for the Britons. I am thinking either they must be deployed for the whole game at the start of the game, or else once placed on a unit must remain with that unit for the rest if the game (and be lost with it), or else can be moved each turn but only by a certain distance. The Romans could also use the latter approach, but have a greater disctance that they move them - or else retain full flexibility.
I do rather like the combat mechanisms, and my latest tweak of reducing Protection due to disorder also helps speed combats up once it occurs - provided of course you can roll the dice appropriately, which your cavalry (and later your legions) failed to do in the face of Gary's rather good rolling.
This is a game for a small number of units, say 6 to 8 on each side rather than big battles. We will see where it goes.
To be fair, those insightful comments on command points were yours and I have unashamedly passed them off as my own. I also like the combat mechanism but it is built for attritional warfare so you need to be aware of that when you use it in a game outside its original period.
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