Not my Epic Arausio

This is Dug Page Croft's epic Commmand and Colors refight of the Battle of Arausio.  This battle, in 105BC, between invading Germans and Romans, ended in a terrible defeat for the latter, perhaps worse than Cannae in terms of number of casualties.  It is thought to have led to the reforms of the Roman army, under Marius.

Dug's games are looking very impressive...

Apparently the Germans slaughtered the Romans in both of Dug's refights!  If I remember correctly, they won when I played the game, too, some years ago.  Warband can be pretty hot, in C&C.

Not my Epic Guagamela III and Final Part

...being the remainder of Dug's game 1 (all pictures clickable).  

In the above, it looks to me like the Persians in the centre are pressing forward onto the Macedonian pikes- not something I'd fancy, personally!

Elephants' graveyard.

 Companions pushing forwards, in the centre.

Above, the Companions are well forward, and one of the phalanx blocks seems to be half way to Babylon, already.  I wonder whether the chariot is Darius?

Final shot of the battle above.  I understand that the Macedonians won by a fair margin, and the following 2 games, too!  Looks like the players had a fun day.

Not my Epic Guagamela II

Some more photo's of Dug's excellent game. There are an awful lot of elephants in the Guagamela scenario; rather too many, in my view.  But they look good...

And my favourite two closeups... the pikes, in particular, look brilliant!  It is the first time that I have regretted that my own pikes are all vertical.

Not my Epic Guagamela

At the Society of Ancients Game Day, last year, one of the players was a chap name Dug.  Dug caught the C&C Ancients bug very badly, indeed, and barely a day has gone by without a few photos of one of his games thudding into my Inbox.  

His latest game is the Epic Guagamela scenario. Apparently they managed to fight this huge battle three times in a single day! 

Below are some photos; the closeups were taken by Mark, who also played at Zama.  Dug has an impressively large collection of minis... I also rather envy his large gaming shed.  You don't tend to get gaming rooms like that in London.  :-(

Above is a closeup of the Persian hordes.  The Macedonians do look somewhat outnumbered! 

I shall post a few more photos as they come along...

Command and Colors Napoleonics

I played my first game of Command and Colors Napoleonics, tonight.   Now, I don't even particularly LIKE Napoleonics as a period, but I was very impressed with this game.  If you've played Command and Colors (Ancients), you can pick up the rules inside 15 minutes; yet, at the same time, the game play is different  enough  to give variety (my initial feeling is that the system is even better than the Ancients version).   Also the cards and the blocks are beautiful, which helps to make it a pleasure to play.  My impressions may be slightly coloured by the fact that I won, and drank half a bottle of a very fine French wine in the process!

Two things that I preferred about Napoleonics, compared to Command and Colors (Ancients), are that the impact of generals seems to be rather reduced (I've always thought them too effective in the latter), and that units become less effective as they suffer casualties.  I would have imagined that this latter feature would slow the game down, but it doesn't.  Artillery adds an interesting extra element to the game, and can combine with infantry and cavalry to deliver powerful attacks.  Richard Borg has given different nationalities of troops,different characteristics, which adds a nice flavour.

You can order it from here or your FLGS.  RTB, if you are reading this, you now have no excuse for getting your minis on a gaming table!  ;-)

Scene of Devastation

Here's the gaming table after the latest play test of the Zama game (mentioned yesterday), using Command and Colors blocks.  When we packed up at 11:30, the game was getting near a conclusion, with Carthage (far side of table) somewhat ahead on account of the over-powerful elephants mentioned in the comments on the previous post.  Each of the blocks represents 2-4 figures, and the board on the day will be three times as long.

Zama- Tentative Deployment Plan

I worked with Ian last night on the deployment for the game, revisiting the deployment we tried out last year, and making a few minor tweaks to it.  The game will be played with (slightly adapted) Command and Colours boardgame rules.  We used single C&C blocks to work out exactly where the units will be positioned (each block represents 8-16 miniatures, or roughly 400 to 1000 real men).

 

Roman Left (above): the player will command the left flank cavalry and the left Allied Roman legion.  His Carthaginian opponent will have a relatively small and somewhat outnumbered command!

Roman Centre (above): The Romans are deployed, behind a screen of velites, with gaps between the maniples to counter the Carthaginian elephants.  The Roman centre player will command the other 3 legions.  The Carthaginians are in three lines (mercenaries, levy, veterans) behind a screen of elephants.  Pencils show where the section boundaries will be.

 

Roman Right (above):  The Roman right player will command Masinissa's Numidian infantry and cavalry.  Again, they heavily outnumber their Carthaginian/Numidian opponent.

We have also tentatively agreed a small number of special rules that, we hope, will recreate the poor performance of the Carthaginian elephants and levy on the day (I'll publish these later).  What we need to do next, is to playtest the scenario two or three times  to make sure it is balanced....

One small by-product of the planning is that we added a few more units of Carthaginian light troops, taking the total number of minis past 1400!  At the same time, we reduced the number of elephants to 10, which will save me a fair bit of painting time.  The width of the board remains unchanged at 16 feet.

Muswell Militia house amendments to the C&C Rules

We play the rules pretty straight, except for two changes which help with armies incluiding cavalry.  We find that light horse aren't a great troop type in the rules.  This is partly because they aren't much good in melee, and run huge distances when they get a flag (often perishing when they reach a table edge).

Firstly, we use a slighly deeper table than the boardgame.  Our Hotz mats have two more rows of hexes than the standard C&C boards, and this extra depth is very useful when armies with cavalry, giving them a bit more space to manouvre (and to run away!).  Frankly, if we had 3 or 4 more rows of hexes, I wouldn't be unhappy!  But my table depth is 48" and there is no space for them.

Secondly, we have amended the evade rules.  In the standard rules, when evading, the attacker rolls a number of dice against the evader depending on his troop type; paradoxically this means that the slower troops, eg Heavy Infantry, with 5 dice, are likely to inflict more casualties on evaders than faster troops such as Medium Cavalry with 3.  Moreover, the potential casualties inflicted on evaders seem disproportionate by comparison with the one or two dice that skirmishers inflict through shooting.

Soooo... the Muswell Hill Amendment is that when skirmishers evade, they take one dice when the attacking troops are slower than them; two if the attackers move at the same speed, and three if the attackers are a faster troop type.  Simple... but it makes a huge difference with battles involving light horse, such as Ruspina.

Here are some Scythian light horse I prepared rather earlier.

We played the Ruspina scenario again last night, with 14 units of light horse, and it worked very well.  I must say that I now feel that Carrhae could just about be squeezed onto our table.  If only I had 80 or so horse archers, rather than two dozen...

Ruspina 46BC Part IV; To the Green Fields, Beyond?

Here we are for the fourth and final installment of this After Action Review.  The previous part is here if you've not already read it.

Here's a view of Casear's right wing.  The poor Caesarian archers are completely isolated and surrounded by light cavalry!  Labienus, in the middle distance has moved down the hill, and out of Caesar's charge range.

 

Above is the situation in the centre.  The main Roman force is inclining to the right, and Caesar was thinking that the schwerpunkt of his thrust would be near the central palm tree.

 

Labienus' body language is looking a little stressed as the Caesarian Cohorts converge towards the palm on the hill.  The newly arrived Numidian army under Petreius has been trying to move to block them.

 

And it's not improved on the following turn either, as the Caesarians pile forwards! 

 

Argh!  General Petreius plays a double time and hurtles down from the hill into the Caesarian line. 

 

He doesn't inflict great casualties on the Romans, but is in a position to hit them again, next turn.

 

In the Caesarian turn, they encircle and subsequently destroy two Numidian cavalry units (above).  In his next turn, Caesar only needs to move a unit or two off the table (towards the elusive granaries) to win.

 

But Labienus has one turn left befor that happens.  To win, before Caesar is able to win next turn, he needs to be able to kill 4 units.  His best card allows him to activate only three units so it is very difficult to achieve this... However he is lucky in that his first three attacks are successful and each kill a unit, wiping out two low-strength Roman formations and the last survivors of the Caesarian archers.  The third attack was with a unit including his general, which is therefore entitled to a momentum attack.  Can General Petreius roll three hits on three dice, to kill a fourth Caesarian unit?

 

He shoots, he scores!   Labienus/Petreius win by the narrowest of margins, 8 blocks to 7. 

 

Final view of the battlefield.

Of all the rule systems I've played, Command and Colors comes up time and time again with the closest, most exciting finishes.  Although defeated, I particularly enjoyed this game, and hope to replay it this week as the Numidians.

Ruspina 46BC Part III; Caesar vs. Labienus; Head to Head!

We rejoin the action for the third part of our four part account of our refight of Ruspina.  Caesar, thwarted in his attack on the left by the arrival of Petreius, has advanced the right of his line in an attampt to break through in the centre.  This would require fighting his way through Labienus' veteran Gallic and German cavalry...

 

Above, Caesar's outnumbered Gallic cavalry charge bravely forward but are engulfed and founder amidst a sea of Numidians and Germans.

 

Five more Numidian units march onto the table to join Petreius on the ridge...  gulp.  The Caesarians were outnumbered roughly two to one in units, by this stage. 

 

"Lads, if we can break through, there's all the wine you can drink on the far side of that ridge!"  Caesar (right centre, you can just see his red cloak) advances to avenge his Gallic horse.

 

Caesar contracts his line, moving away from the worrying Pompeian buildup on his left.  That's a Command and Colors summary sheet in the foreground.

 

The cavalry unit in the centre of this mass of legionaries is Labienus with his German bodyguard.  Caesar managed to isolate it by marching a couple of units to prevent it from evading, and personally attaked it at the head of his troops.  The unit was comprehensively slaughtered.  However, Labienus managed (somehow!!!) to survive no less than 5 rolls to kill him as he broke through the encircling units to escape.   Grrrr.  If he'd have died, Caesar would have been able to claim "Spolia Opima" and to hang his armour outside his house in Rome.

 

And here, in today's final shot, Labienus taunts Caesar from the relative safety of a hillock.

Final part, tomorrow.

Ruspina 46BC Part II; Opening Moves

In my previous post I described the deployment of the forces for this refight of Ruspina.  We drew chits to see who would play which side; I drew the Caesarians, and was to be ably assisted by TimeLine Barry who played Dubius Status, my Tribune.    My old adversary, Ian, played Caesar's old adversary, Labienus.

Caesar decided that his strategy would be to advance as swiftly as possible in order to minimise shooting casualties and to pin the elusive enemy (who, even without their off-table reinforcements, included no less than18 units of skirmishers!) against their baseline.

Above is the situation after the Caesarian second move; the Caesarians have moved up to drive back the Numidian skirmish line.  Caesar delegated Dubius Status to roll the combat dice; needing to get a "green on a one in six chance, he managed to roll no less than 5 hits on 10 dice! 

Above, the Numidian skirmishers in turn managed to inflict some casualties on Caesar's line.  The unit on the far right has already been reduced to a single stand (gulp!).  Caesar's archers have moved into the line on the far right.

Here's a cloesup of the rather menacing situation on Caesar's right, which was eventually completely surrounded by the Numidian host.

Caesar lacked a suitable card to recover the situation on my right, but had an "Order Medium Units" card which enabled him to throw the left half of his line forward, at the double. This meant that Labienus would need to react to this on his next turn, or Caesar would be able to snaffle two units of his light infantry.  This had the effect of relieving the pressure on Caesar's other wing.

Labienus successfully pulled back two of the threatened units but Dubius Status was able to isolated a third, and destroy it with some more highly effective dice rolling.  The Caesarian line, on the left, has pushed right up to the Numidian horse; leaving a wide gap in the centre of the line!  It looked , for a minute, like Caesar was poised to break through onto the ridge and into the greenfields, beyond.

However fate had other plans; Labienus played an "Inspired Leadership Right" card and brought on Petreius and 5 units of Numidian reinforcements.  Defending hills, the Numidian Auxilia are better than legionaries; Caesar realised that he would need to break through somewhere else, instead!

The next installment of this battle will be published tomorrow.

Caesar's Matter of Loaf and Death (Ruspina 46BC) Part I

In 46BC Caesar led three legions of recruits (leavened with some veterans) out of his camp in Africa, to gather grain.  He was unaware that his former lieutenant Titus Labienus, now a Pompeian General, was in the area with a vast force of Numidian light infantry and cavalry, and several thousand veteran German and Gallic cavalry that Caesar had once counted as his own.  Worse still, another Pompeian General, Marcus Petreius, was moving up to support Labienus with another force of cavalry and a very large force of Numidian infantry.  The ensuing battle lasted the better part of a day, and Caesar came very close to being comprehensively defeated; arguably closer than in any other battle of his career.

Last week I finally finished my Numidian light cavalry and so decided, in order to christen them, to refight this battle using the Command and Colors Ancients rules.  It is a fascinating battle because the sides are so asymmetric; the Caesarians are mostly heavy infantry, and the Pompeians almost all light troops.  The Caesarians have a nightmare trying to pin down and destroy the faster Pompeians, but the latter must prevent the former from taking the ridge and moving on to achieve their grain-gathering mission.

Here is a view of the battlefield.  On the left are the Pompeians; twelve units of Numidian light cavalry, six of light infantry, and three of German cavalry "with bridles".

You may be able to make out Titus Labienus (centre on a white horse) at the head of his heavier cavalry, screened by the lighter Numidian cavalry.  Another large Pompeian army, under General Petreius, is lurking off table behind the ridge line...

And here are the Caesarian lines; twelve units of medium infantry, a very lonely-looking unit of Gallic cavalry on the extreme right, and a unit of archers scurrying up from the camp to support the line.  Caesar is the general on the round command stand, furthest from the camera.

We were playing the Caesar's legion amendment, which allows legionaries to move two hexes (but not attack) and  the Caesar rule which gives a unit that Caesar is accompanying an extra dice.  We also played a house rule to reduce the casualties that light troops take when evading; essentially troops who are faster than those attacking them only take one dice of casualties; those of a similar speed, two and those slower, three.  This was critical because under the standard C&C(A) rules, evading Numidians would have been shredded!

Victory was set at 8 units destroyed.  Any Caesarian units exiting off the Pompeian board edge (towards the Pompeian granaries) would count as one block towards the total.

Tomorrow I'll post the first part of the battle....

Command and Colors Plataea

Tonight we tried the new Epic rules out with the Command and Colors boardgame pictured in the previous post (sorry took no photos).

The new 100 card deck is excellent, and makes it rather easier to play the big games; the cards tell you exactly what you can do with moves, and it is easier to understand what combination of cards you can play.  This should help in games where novices are involved, as with Zama.  The rules have changed slightly from the previous Epic set.  I think they are improved (not that there was much wrong with them before).

We played the Plataea scenario in roughly 2 hours (I was in slooow mode).  In the final move, I was the Persians, and we were both 8 blocks down out of 10.  Because of the way the units were positioned, I knew I had to win that turn, or Persian hegemony of Greece would fail as Ian hit all my weakened units in his turn.

I launched multiple attacks against the 3 nearest (full strength) Greek units in a desperate attempt to seize victory from the jaws of defeat; one succeeded, but two failed and left me short the one block I needed for victory.  In the next turn I would certainly lose as my units were all down to single blocks and were vulnerable to a counterattack.  However, in my final unsuccessfl attack, I had inflicted a single hit on the Spartan General's unit, and there was a 1 in 36 chance that he would fall in combat.  I rolled my final pair of dice of the game, and we both dissolved in laughter as I got the required two "General" symbols!  Pausanias fell and Greece became yet another satrapy... it is amazing how almost every C&C game goes right down to the wire.

Ian and I discussed the game afterwards, and agreed that we really prefer the feel of the larger epic games, to standard C&C.