Cremona 69 AD at Salute

Since Salute I have been frantically busy and haven't had a chance to post any of the photos of the game.  What follows is a fairly random selection of pictures of the game taken by Ian Notter (long shots) and Alan Daniels (closeups). First there are some shots of the game before the doors opened:

View down the table

The Vitellian Camp

Othonian gladiators row towards the pontoon bridge

I had planned to play the whole game but we were shorthanded and somewhat overwhelmed by the level of interest from the public, and we only managed to play the first half. A highlight of the day for me was being sought out by a lovely couple of kids (10 and 12) who played at SELWG last year, and who wanted to play again.

XXI Rapax observe the big cavalry melee

A slave fleeing the fighting, with grapes!

V Alaudae advancing towards the pontoon bridge

It was great to see my newly-printed "To the Strongest!" rulebook out on the table; the ink was barely dry! Happily we sold quite a few copies on the day from Caliver and Agema. I still have plenty of copies left and they can be bought from the BigRedBatshop. If you have previously bought a digital version of the rules I'll give you a £5 refund on the purchase price.

View along the table

One of my favourite things about Salute is the opportunity to meet so many friends and people who work in the hobby - the two categories are not, of course, mutually exclusive.

V Alaudae; I love those yellow shields!

Gladiators risking all in the hope of liberty!

A huge thank you to Mark Freeth of the Wargames Holiday Centre and mate Mark for running the game and to Ian Notter and Alan Daniels for taking the photos. I felt that the Warlords did a fine job of organising the event this year, entrance, in particular, being very much improved.

Publius Marius Celsus, the Othonian cavalry commander

Legionaries trample the rich wheatfields

My next gigs are at the Wargames Holiday Centre from Friday 15th and Partizan at the end of May. If you fancy playing in a game at either, please do drop me a line!  

Best, Simon

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Issue List

• Volume One - Issue One - August 2014 (PDF - 25Mb)

Bloody Cremona!

Here are some more photos of the Roman Civil War game that I ran yesterday at Partizan, in the grounds of Kelham Hall. 

One benefit of this year's move from Hall to tent was the vastly superior lighting.  Yesterday I felt very much like Van Gogh must have felt after he relocated from Paris to Provence... Time was so short, however, that I am afraid I completely failed to take any pics of the other games, several of which were quite spectacular, particularly the lofty Keren and muddy Lardy Verdun game.  

Several of the below photos were taken by Dave D. and John T., who played in the game, together with Agema Greg, Nigel M. and Jean. The players were as good-natured a bunch of wargamers as one could hope to come across.  A big thank you to John T who was a huge help in setting up and knocking down the game. 

In our re-fight, the smaller Othonian force attacked aggressively from the outset.  Their cavalry, although outnumbered almost three to one, smashed the  poorer quality Vitellian cavalry and turned onto the flank of the enemy infantry. Beyond the Po, the Batavians killed the Othonian gladiators, losing a unit to an ambush from a small wood, in the process. The main infantry fight was extremely even but, after hard fighting, the Othonians managed to overturn history and achieve a narrow but very worthy victory.

We had quite a few visitors, and I talked to as many as I was able. I also managed to chat with some of the people from other tables, notable the Newark Irregulars, all three of the magazine editors, Phil from the SOA and Northstar Nick, and old friends Craig Cartmell and Richard Crawley, amongst others. 

The players picked up my "To the Strongest!" rules very quickly and required surprisingly little intervention from me, which was convenient as I was stretched very thin.

Lawrence and Tricks, the Partizan organisers, did a fantastic job of moving the event to the marquees, on such short notice. I absolutely loved playing in the tents, and would be delighted to put on a game in them again. I fear that the additional cost and the risk of bad weather may preclude this, though... I hope there will be room for me, in tent or hall, in September!

I'll be running this game again, and several others on a similar scale, at the Wargames Holiday Centre near Basingstoke, on the weekend of 28th/29th June, there are still spaces, give Mark Freeth a call!

Without more ado, here are the photos!  All are clickable, and the video can be watched full screen.

Initial deployment; eight regiments of Vitellian cavalry, face three Othonian units.  The former were slaughtered...

The first of the eight Vitellian cavalry units are removed by Agema Greg...

The pontoon bridge.  I liked the bridge, even if everyone who came by the table seemed to prefer the vineyards.  ;-)

Battle lines clash amidst the (offending) vineyards.

Othonian Praetorians advance along the raised Postumian way; this terrain piece came out very well.

The plain near Cremona was extensively farmed, and divided into rectangular plots; perfect for my grid-based rules!

Batavians cross the pontoon bridge, shot at by gladiators from the Othonian boat

Othonian self-propelled artillery benefit from the elevation provided by the raised road.

I Adiutrix (forground) battle XXI Rapax (rear).  The commanders of both legions fell in the heavy fighting.

Finally, below a video of the battlefield I took after the end of the game, showing all of the figures and the terrain pieces.

Cremona at Partizan

I'm back from Partizan and completely bushed. The sun shone, the venue was fantastic and I met a whole lot of friends. I'll post some photos tomorrow, but for the moment, I have a somewhat shaky video of the game in full flow, playing cards everywhere and several generals with furrowed brows! The pile of units off table towards the end of the clip, are seven regiments of dead Vitellian cavalry. It was a bloodbath...