My first game of Simn Hall's new ancients rules. Played against Paul 'Dracostandard' Cummins and his 15mm Persians, Nick 'Genorm' Overland joined us during the first turn.
The rules are card driven activation, alternate unit movement and dice based combat where pluses equal better dice with more chance of hitting.
Still a few rules to iron out, but played really well.
I used a fairly vanilla Later Roman force, two veteran legions, two average legions, a veteran Auxilia Palatinate and an average Auxilia, I also had a small (but fragile) unit of catefractori, an average ala of equites, two ala or equites illirycani, plus two heavy artillery batteries. Some of my bits were 15mm to bulk out numbers, sorry. Generals had been assembled that morning, and undercoated as I got home from work!
Paul, one of the most experienced play testers, had an elite cavalry unit, an elite unit of immortals armed with just about everything, two units of average tribal warrior/archers, a unit of hopilite mercenaries, an average cavalry unit and two units of horse archers.
Paul, being a nice guy, deployed first, heavies and elites on his right.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc94/madlemmey/Later%20Romans/6CC1A6C0-70CE-4E6B-837B-A1B030272073_zpsopmt45bc.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/madlemmey/media/Later%20Romans/6CC1A6C0-70CE-4E6B-837B-A1B030272073_zpsopmt45bc.jpg.html)
I put my catefractori and superior Auxilia left of centre, massed the four legions in the middle, supported by my artillery, I put my ordinary Auxilia to take the bad going, and massed my cavalry ala and illirycani on the right to match up to Pauls.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc94/madlemmey/Later%20Romans/14914FAE-7EA4-4EA7-83EE-90A024FCA3A9_zpsdnnznue0.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/madlemmey/media/Later%20Romans/14914FAE-7EA4-4EA7-83EE-90A024FCA3A9_zpsdnnznue0.jpg.html)
10mm battle lines are impressive!
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc94/madlemmey/Later%20Romans/84ABB8A9-27A1-4CAC-AFC1-072D057456CB_zpszowh1krs.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/madlemmey/media/Later%20Romans/84ABB8A9-27A1-4CAC-AFC1-072D057456CB_zpszowh1krs.jpg.html)
The lines advance,
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc94/madlemmey/Later%20Romans/2F398648-D0ED-4F3C-BCAF-76FE85C28BCB_zps4uvmuqil.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/madlemmey/media/Later%20Romans/2F398648-D0ED-4F3C-BCAF-76FE85C28BCB_zps4uvmuqil.jpg.html)
White dice are shots from my artillery hitting Paul's skirmishers! Those same skirmishers failed to evade my charging average legion, and were shortly after caught and destroyed!
My catefractori bravely try to deal with Paul's elite cavalry, this didn't end well!
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc94/madlemmey/Later%20Romans/3349EB1D-F173-4807-8E9E-BF4A0BDDF294_zpswodvkhmn.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/madlemmey/media/Later%20Romans/3349EB1D-F173-4807-8E9E-BF4A0BDDF294_zpswodvkhmn.jpg.html)
Over on the right, the two cavalry units clashed, did enough hits on each other for either to break on the next wound, and, mine, despite being up due to 'Combat' troops, lost and broke!
I turned my iliricani to face his cavalry, they declared a charge, which caused Paul to try to charge me with his bow armed light horse, and the remainents of his cavalry to charge my other illirycani. This should have been an easy win for Paul, but...
I evaded with the light horse facing the cavalry, shot two white dice, and scored two wounds, enough to break the Persian cavalry! They had a general attached, who promptly died too, this caused the nearby bow armed horse to take two saves, failing both, and following Paul's cavalry off table!
No idea how that happened, but it was brutal!
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc94/madlemmey/Later%20Romans/859F46EC-8A01-4F2E-9F22-F7049F73A987_zpsoo1d5ybl.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/madlemmey/media/Later%20Romans/859F46EC-8A01-4F2E-9F22-F7049F73A987_zpsoo1d5ybl.jpg.html)
In the centre, Nick got the two superior legions into the Persian foot.
This was only going to go one way, even with pavaises...
On the left, Paul's two wonder units of elites chomped their way through an average legion and superior Auxilia in very short order.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc94/madlemmey/Later%20Romans/83B55CE2-1C58-4EB8-BDA4-994FFD41EC70_zpsngrl8b6b.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/madlemmey/media/Later%20Romans/83B55CE2-1C58-4EB8-BDA4-994FFD41EC70_zpsngrl8b6b.jpg.html)
Shortly after; In the middle Nick's legions were joined by my average legion.
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc94/madlemmey/Later%20Romans/BDA64342-3E93-4437-B758-6DA3BE522B4D_zpsy4y5ddn1.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/madlemmey/media/Later%20Romans/BDA64342-3E93-4437-B758-6DA3BE522B4D_zpsy4y5ddn1.jpg.html)
This was enough to seal the fate of the phalanx of hopilites and the tribal forces.
This left a foot race between three legions to sack Paul's camp, this was a touch and go moment, if we lost one more unit, we lost the game, however, Paul was in the same boat...
(http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc94/madlemmey/Later%20Romans/2FE0A949-BB91-4D8E-A860-6031D879ABC0_zpspcwwxqpj.jpg) (http://s214.photobucket.com/user/madlemmey/media/Later%20Romans/2FE0A949-BB91-4D8E-A860-6031D879ABC0_zpspcwwxqpj.jpg.html)
The counters behind my legions signify lost bases (due to mine being double based), so it was very close to breaking when it captured the camp. This signalled the end for the Persians and a 20-7 win for Nick and I. Pyrrhic would be a good description.
Great game, definitely will be trying again, and this maybe an excuse to get my Picts underway! 8)
Hello mad lemmey
Thanks for battle report. It sounds like a near run thing. I'm a bit intrigued on how you can have card based activation AND alternate unit movement.
Cheers
GrumpyOldMan
Each general is dealt as many cards as their quality allows (mediocre 2, competent 3, legendary 4) each allows certain levels of movement (black, forget it, white, ahead only, green, yellow all the way up to red and you can do amazing things, reds are very rare), each player picks a general, he can then play one card, or more, then moves the units.
Then your opponent does the same for one unit,
Back to player 1 etc
Hello mad lemmey
Thanks for the explanation. Interesting mechanic, I'll have to sit down and think about it. Might be difficult to play solo. Thanks again.
Cheers
GrumpyOldMan
Nice report Will
Take care
Andy
Sounds an interesting system. Thanks.
Swords and sandals vs arrows and trousers,
Nice game, like your lager roman army. 8)
Nice report, Will.
It looks a bit complicated to me.....With all the markers on the table.....But I assume those help keep track of 'who's doing what'....and actually simplifies things in the end ?
Cheers - Phil
Ignore the wooden ones Techno, they are mine as my figures we double based and didn't quite match up (and it means Leon will be getting an order for figures soon)!
The cards are just what was being played for that unit (imagine bad poker players learning the game), the charges are to show who is fighting, the little purple squares are 'wounds', each base can take two before being removed, so you only ever have one per unit at a time.