Tuesday 8 December 2009

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.

13 comments:

Consul said...

Great finish!

Although, being a sore loser, I probably wouldn't use these rules if it's always a tight finish. There's nothing better than a crushing victory! But they do seem very realistic so it's possibly something to try out in the future.

I bet you virtually had your cup of wine to your lips, ready for a victory sip until that last turn!

BigRedBat said...

Hi Consul,

I was astonished; I thought I'd already won! He was very lucky. But then, the week before I pulled a similar late victory off.

Anyhow, shouldn't you be studying? ;-) My eldest boy is interviewing at Oxford today.

Consul said...

Yes 'Dad'. Lol. I've got to write a reflective piece on the Career Development and Planning module i've just finished. No reading or references, just a lot of writing and reflecting! It's a mental drain...

I hope he does OK. He probably works a lot harder than me!

BigRedBat said...

Good luck with that, Consul.

He's a lazy sod. Bright, though... :-)

Consul said...

Is he into the old wargaming too?

I'm now more into it than my Dad!

BigRedBat said...

He plays board games with me; Athens vs Sparta, and other historical games. He wargames occasionally, but prefers WoW to figure gaming.

Figurenschieber said...

Awesome as ever! Where are the palm trees from? What rule setup do you use?
Best regards

BigRedBat said...

Hi there, palm trees are from TimeLine miniatures.

http://www.timeline-miniatures.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=56&5479c3b8c7d4c338dbecf8d28ed61324=192a94b55af2e25ee0ddc1b6fd0ee098

Say hi to Barry; by coincidence he was my sub general!

We use the Command and Colors Ancients boardgame rules; I'd thoughroughly recommend them! It's a great game that you can play, without 600 minis.

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Very nice battle report on yet another table packed with nicely painted mini's.
It sounded very exciting.

Cheers
Christopher

BigRedBat said...

Thank you Christopher!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Truly Epic

I will have to investigate C&C

Thanks for the posting

trev said...

Enjoying the Roman stuff Simon. Cheers for posting. You're tempting me back to Ancients with your nicely painted figs and fun looking games. I'll have to try C&C out as I have gone right off WAB.

BigRedBat said...

Hi Trev, the nice thing is that you can play C&C without needing to rebase, so if you find it doesn't suit, nothing much is lost.

Worth a go; IIRC from the web you have some nice Romans!