On-line ancients

 After last week's comparative success - we played a game to a conclusion and everyone enjoyed themselves - we were back for another go, again through the medium of Skype. This time I had worked out how to set up Skype meetings, rather than just run a call with everyone dialling in. I'm not sure how much difference it made.

I've been working on clearing my plastic pile back log, and had been painting more hoplites (can you ever have too many hoplites?) for which I had been making those spiffy plastic spears I wrote about a week or so ago. So why not do some ancients?

As it turned out, despite my best efforts, most of the hoplites didn't get done in time (mix up with the shield transfer order, and I need to put the transfers on before I base for most of the poses) so instead of a massed hoplite v hoplite brawl I dragged out the Persians to give the Greeks a game.

I was going to use Neil Thomas' AMW rules, but on reflection I decided that there was as a bit too much in the way of dice rolling for the players. I therefore decided to give NT's OHW Ancient rules a spin. The single die roll for shooting and combat should keep the game moving. Instead of using one of his scenarios, I decided instead to double the size of the base armies, more or less, and do a match up on an open plain, as that's mostly what happens in Hellenistic warfare anyway.

I had a turn out of four players, the same as last week.

Chris and Steve played the Persians. Richard and Patrick took the Greeks.

Greeks are to the left, Persians to the right. The Greeks had 6 units of "Infantry", 3 of "Skirmishers" and one of "Cavalry". The Persians had 3 "Infantry", 2 "Archers", 2 "Skirmishers" and 3 "Cavalry". The Persians won the dice off to move first, and this is the situation after their first move. Boldly, they decided to advance, as you can see.

Then the Greeks had a go. Richard, taking the left of their line mostly moved forwards. Patrick decided to stay put. 

The Persians then moved up their main battle line. If you want to follow this closely, units 3, 5 & 7 are Infantry, 4 & 6 are Archers. Steve decided he would charge into the Hoplites in the distance, unit 3, with his cavalry. He also sent his light troops to occupy the hill top in the distance.

The Greeks surrendered the high ground and pulled back onto the plain. Steve has got away with his charge, the hoplites only inflicting minimal damage (note for OHW aficionados I have allowed units that move faster than their opponents to withdraw from combat, so they can hit and run, although they still have to take at least one round of combat before they can do so).

This picture makes it clearer that Richard has pulled his light troops back to sort of refuse this flank.

In the centre the Infantry close, with the Archers holding back and shooting away. They don't do a lot of damage (1 x d6 halved as infantry are armoured). I think if I was to persist with these rules I would increase archery range to 13" so it certainly takes two moves at least to cover the ground.

In the distance Steve extracted his cavalry, and close to the camera Chris charged home with his horse. We then got a sort of surprise. Whilst the cavalry will probably defeat the skirmishers, it is evident it is going to take some time. The idea that cavalry actions resolve quickly is not the case here.

Patrick shrugs off the threat of unit 7 being attacked in the flank by unit 4 (after all, he's in armour, so hits are halved for that before being doubled for being flanked) in order to turn up the heat on those Persian infantry.

Chris obliges by charging his archers in. This does give them a leg up in the ensuing combat, but will it be enough?

Patrick's gamble pays off, as his two on one breaks the Persian infantry, enabling him to turn and face the archers. He's on 8 hits, and inflicts 4 in the first round of fighting. On average he is now going to inflict 5 hits a turn, more or less, compared to 2 from the archers. That means that the hoplites should just edge it in 3 moves.

On the far side the light infantry start to get in each other's faces. Richard closes the distance between the Hoplites and the cavalry. I think Steve has left it too late to do something effective with his horse on this flank.

Steve had to back off his cavalry or get stuck in again, and went for the retreat. His skirmishers on the hill charged down and caught Richard's slingers in the rear. He was happy to take that to get a 2:1 on Steve's other skirmishers, which he was on the point of breaking. Elsewhere everything else was locked in mortal combat, except for one unit of hoplites in the centre.

Patrick about faced his central free hoplites and headed off to plug any potential cavalry breakthrough on his right flank. It may be unnecessary, as his Greek cavalry has seen off their opponents on the extreme right. In the middle, another Persian unit is broken by the Hoplite steamroller.

Steve sends his cavalry out wide to try and resolve the skirmisher fight in his favour, and avoid the hoplites trying to shut him down.

Over on the hilly flank both sides have lost a skirmisher unit each, but it is a loss the Greeks can bear more easily than the Persians

Patrick's flank-covering hoplites catch the Persian cavalry who are making such heavy weather of the skirmishers. The Greek cavalry have got round into the flank of the Persian infantry line, and they have a two on one in the centre. Richard has even extricated his last skirmisher unit from a potentially tricky situation.

Two more Persian units bite the dust, and that's game over, the Persians having reached the pre-game break point of 7 out of 10 units.

The game took about 90 minutes, which is right for a One Hour Wargame that has been upsized. It moved along at a fair pace, and I guess the outcome is what you'd probably get through most rule sets with these armies facing off against each other. The archers are a waste of space against infantry, even with perfect shooting, but then that fairly reflects the hoplites at Marathon, so what do I know? 

Still, everyone professed to enjoy themselves, and it is a wargame. We talked about camera angles and what you could see on the table, and it looks like the camera needs to be moved to the side to make the most of its depth of field.

Next week I think I'll have a go with Indian Mutine-era