Asculum OOB

I've just started to get my mind around the Asculum game that various chums and I propose to run next year (probably at Partizan, in May).

Asculum 279BC was a classic Successor vs. Roman battle, which conveniently includes lots of pikes, legionaries, elephants and anti-elephant secret weapons.  Plus it ties in nicely with the spiffing range of miniatures that Aventine are producing...  Rule set likely to be Hail Caesar.

Below are the very broad brushstrokes of the OOB, based on the Pen and Sword "Pyrrhus of Epirus" book, scaled to 1/100. 

Romans		Figures
Allied Legionaries	20000	200
Roman Legionaries	20000	200
Other allies	30000	300
Cavalry	8000	80
Anti elephant carts		8
Pyrrhics
Macedonian and Epirot pikemen	20000	200
Greeks	16000	160
Samnites	34000	340
Cavalry	8000	80
Elephants	19	8
		1576

My first thoughts are that, as it stands, it is very do-able as we have enough Romans (although not the leves), from Zama, and enough pikemen.  We are probably only short of the Southern Italian and Samnite infantry, and cavalry.

My concern is that it doesn't give enough scope to use quite a lot of the figures that we already have painted; Craig and Aventine Keith, between them, already have a lot more pikes than we would need (let alone mine).  

I'm somewhat tempted to up the ante by doubling up to 1:50 scale (keeping the number of nellies and carts fixed), even if it means that we have to use Carthaginians, perhaps, to represent some of the allies.  I'll have to see how it goes; whether I can, perhaps, produce a Roman legion, or two, m'self...

Tarentines for Asculum

The above are (mostly) Aventine Miniatures Tarentine cavalry, which are the first miniatures I'm painting specifically for next year's planned Asculum game.  I've wanted some units of Tarentines for years, they are so useful for many Successor-era battles.  Back in the days of WRG I used to use 3 small units of 4 Tarentines to pin the enemy so my Polybian legions could get stuck in; they won load of games for me, and have been a favourite troop type ever since!

I've mixed in 8 Foundry horses, and 6 Foundry Greek riders, just because I have them.  The riders blend in perfectly; the Foundry horses are a tad larger, but go pretty well, too.  Plan is to do 3 units of 8 light cavalry, and then see what Keith and Adam come up with for the heavies.  The Aventine minis are lovely sculpts, with vrtually no mould lines.

Where I went on my Hols

Just come back from a lovely break in a Provencal village, called Gordes.  The view from our villa was lovely, and I include it because it struck me that it looks rather like the terrain I'd like to put together for our Partizan/Asculum game next year.  I'm thinking that most of the terrain will be a flat plain (possibly a painted cloth), covered in fields with some olive orchards and vineyards.  The table will be 5' deep and 20' wide.  Wooded hills, like the one of the right of frame, will rise from the plains.  The trees will mostly be scrub oak, pine and cypress.  If time permits, I'll do some hills as backdrops on the baselines.  Sorry the photo isn't very high definition.

Of course, if anyone has photos of the actual region in Italy, I'd be really interested to see them...

In other news, I'm going to temporarily suspend my Napoleonic efforts in order to finish and base 3 units of Principiate Romans that Dr. Simon's mate has painted for me; they don't need much work and should look very nice when completed.  I also still have some lovely Marian Roman figures from Andres, to base...

Ideas for next year's game... II; Asculum

I posted a week or so ago about Chaeronea as one idea for a Very Big Battle for 2011.

The second battle I'd like to look at is Asculum, 279BC, which was fought between Pyrrhus of Epirus and his Italian allies and a Roman army under the Consul Decimus Mus.  

 

I considered the other Pyrrhic battles, but unfortunately none fit the available terrain.  The battlefield featured some hills and woods.  I think we could add some of these to the Zama boards; perhaps adding some extra boards, or freestanding hills.  We would want to fit Pyrrhus' camp in, too, as this played a part in the battle.

 

The troop types aren't as varied as Chaeronea , but a game would include a very large number of pikemen, some elephants and a large number of Roman anti-elephant carts, which would be very interesting to model.  It would be a good one if we could access Aventine and Craig's Romans again; and would tie in very well with Aventines' projected Tarantine range.  I'd think a 3m long pike phalanx would look very fine!