Thursday 3 June 2010

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!

5 comments:

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

mmmm....anti-elephant carts......tasty!

BigRedBat said...

Yes. Keith mentioned that he and Adam had thought about making some; they would be very eye-catching. Teh Roamsn allegedly had 300 of them!

Prufrock said...

Another good option, and not one of the battles I'd thought you might pick, either :)

A bunch of anti-elephant carts on the table would be pretty impressive to see...

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

I'd have the carts use the same rules as scythed chariots with maybe an additional minus against everything but elephants and a plus against elephants.

BigRedBat said...

I do hope that there is a special circle of hell reserved for Chinese Spammmers!

Hi Allan, I don't reckon that the the anti-elephant carts were up to much. Maybe as (slow) light infantry, but with a small bonus for the units if attacked by elephants?

Even though ineffective, perhaps we could tell the Romans that they were war winning weapons of nellie destruction!